audio | username: haltham

[aprescoup]

He... llo? Hey-ho! Hello. Got the hang of it now —

( But does he? A sudden spell of background laughter would indicate the channel remains disrupted, until… it suddenly quiets down. )

...there we go! How’s you lot? This is Haltham. Me? Been good. Real swell. Got me a... got a goat now. She’s a handsome one. Met’er coming down from the mountains, minding my own business, might’ve had a little to dri — ...but keeps the body warm, don’t it? And there I was, and there she was, and I think she’d just killed a man? Can’t be helping it, happens in a mountain. And we looked each other up, then down, though she’s mostly sideways, think she’s, hm... her eyes sort of cross, but you know, she’s a looker, and she walks the leash right, and we headed on together, so. And now, I take her everywhere.

( He seems, suddenly, to remember the point of his outreach: )

Anyway. You’ll have your own goat! Maybe. We’re taking you. Taking you elsewhere. On a walk. To a new place, better place, for living. Mostly better. Well... right, it’s not all that better, but it’s a home, a farm. And... look. Can’t be having you at the… ladies’ house no more. There’s trouble in the city now, with all them folks rising for Anurr, and... heard some of you got involved with all that. Keep your heads down! Oi! Oiiiiiiii. Down. Don't be dying before I even see you.

( A pause, then: ) So, this farm. Used to be a woodhouse. It’s... closer to the forest, where the old blood live, and it’s farther out, but… you can still walk to the merchants’ places, and it’ll do you good. Proper, honest stroll each morning. Works an appetite. Old man thought it might be rough, but I talked him into it, and it’s all yours, now! You can head on tomorrow, and Karsa’ll even... you know, sort out your speech pieces, so you can talk smart there too.

Now, it’ll need some cleaning... and some urging along of the wolves. And rats, and... the trouble with the... you'll see. I don’t think some walls are holding, but you’ll prop them, won’t you? Bit of sweat and mud and snow, and it really is all yours, once that’s done! And no one will come along to bother.

Just... don’t open your doors at night, no matter what the wind tells you. Or people. Them’s not people, in that forest.


( ooc: A mission log for the move-out and the delights of the 'farm' will be up tomorrow :) Characters with jobs at the House of Dew can hold on to their posts, even after they relocate. Translation devices will work throughout. )

Comments

[foxable]

[ There's a pause, and then when he replies, it is with a grin in his voice. ]

Yeah! Exactly. I don't know what kind of stories you got there, but it sounds about right. Of course Foxes talk, we just only do it when we feel like it, yeah? And I'm a special fox. A spirit fox. So I can look like a human if I feel like it. Magic, right?

Have you ever met a Fox?

[aprescoup]

Yeah. I have. They're white and handsome. They make all sort of noise and toss about in the snow. But if you're good, they let you pet them. I used to, before I lost some fingers and toes to the frostbite. Now I'm too loud and slow.

[foxable]

[ Oh no bless this man. ]

Oh? You lost some fingers and toes? Well, it sounds like you've always been kind to us. And it sounds like you've been kind to my friends. Would you like new fingers and toes? We call them 'prosthetics', where I'm from, but I make special ones, enchant them with magic, so they are almost like the real thing.

Then you'd be able to pet us again.

[aprescoup]

I've got some wooden bits. But you can't feel the fur through them.

[foxable]

Well, even better! You've had them for a while, yeah? They're probably already imbued with your sweat, maybe blood, that sort of thing. That means it would be even easier to enchant them for you.

They'd still be wood, but you'd be able to feel with them again. You'd be able to balance properly with your toes. I know it's not the same has having real fingers and toes back, but that's what I can offer you.

What do you think?

[aprescoup]

That's sorcery stuff, innit? Thralling.

[foxable]

[ Fox hummed a little as he considered, before replying: ]

Sorcery, I guess, sure. If you want to put it that way. Thralling- that kind of implies that I would have any command over it once the spell was cast, but that’s not how it works. I would call what I do enchantment. Magic.

But I take it that’s what you call magic here?

[aprescoup]

I suppose... don't know much about it, me. Karsa's better for it. You ask me... you don't know where that 'magic' has come from.

[foxable]

Well, in this case, from me, of course. And a little from you, and from the wood you’ve worn and cared for all this time.

I would love to learn about the magic here, but I can only really tell you about how mine works. My enchantments are- Hmm, how best to put this. You know how trees get planted, then grow? For this- I’d be taking a little of that growth, a little of the effort and skill it took to carve and make your fingers, a little of the care and time you’ve spent making those fingers yours, and a little bit of my own will, and I would mix them all together and make them yours. Really yours. Almost a part of you.

They wouldn’t work or answer to anyone else, not even to me. To everyone else they would just be wood.

[aprescoup]

( The wariest: )

...I'm not sure about all that, me. Sounds... complicated. Unnatural, too.

[foxable]

That’s okay. I wouldn’t use any kind of magic that you didn’t want me to, Haltham.

I’m a good Fox.

But I think that magic is the most natural thing there is. I don’t think much would exist without it.

[aprescoup]

I was born without magic, me. And I've done fine.

[foxable]

Oh, I don't know. You might not be able to use it, but that doesn't mean it isn't there inside you. [ There's a genuine warmth to his voice, this time, lacking the teasing lilt it had before. ]

But maybe that's just how I see the world. Who knows.

Just let me know if you change your mind, yeah? I'm happy to help.