fruktansvard: (like two winter roses into a broken vase)
ᖴᗩᗷIᗩᑎ ᗰᗩᒪᔕTᖇOᗰ ([personal profile] fruktansvard) wrote in [community profile] nexus_sages2016-02-01 06:01 pm

(no subject)

Here again, but this time he has a black cat following him and a suitcase. Fabian finds a table in the forum, sets down the suitcase and let's the cat hop up on the table with him. At first it looks like she is doing what any other cat would do when on a table and presented with random items: paw it off the table. Although it seems like she's actually just helping him arrange the items.

"Well, I didn't really have much to say the last time. I think it was a bit of a boring question, wasn't it?" He continues to unpack: small containers, sachets, an other such things all filled with various ingredients. A few teas, some potion vials?

"But now I have a little more drama in my life, so I have something more exciting to ask."

Jasmine - the cat - paws over the last item he unpacked and then went to sit at the edge of the table to look around at the people of the forum.

"So let's say that you are a magic user," Fabian begins. "And for the most part, your magic is used for the better. To help people, healing and things like this. However, you just might have knowledge of something a bit darker. Now, you don't particularly love advertising this fact nor do you enjoy using it."

He stops there, and looks up, an almost regretful look on his face. "Consequences, after all. But!"

Fabian returns to arranging some items, "someone has come back into your life, and they are not all that happy about it nor are they too favourable over the fact that you're still alive. It's only a matter of time, really, that they find you and knowing them they wont go after you per say, oh no. They'll go after the people you care about."

He sighed and stopped what he was doing. "And they're stronger than you, and smarter than you, unless you use black magic." A beat, "And before anyone says it, no there's no option of involving someone else. My world has plenty of magic, none of which is used in public eye. It's an elusive world the powers that be choose to ignore. So that option is out."

And besides, any authority wouldn't be able to handle Tobias anyway. This is one of the rare moments that Fabian has clarity of mind, being here helped, he needed to sort this out.
brave_heart_verity: (Default)

[personal profile] brave_heart_verity 2016-02-02 02:55 am (UTC)(link)
((Before I tag in: Ver's got a curse. If you'd rather not deal with it, I understand, just let me know.))
brave_heart_verity: (looking down)

[personal profile] brave_heart_verity 2016-02-02 03:45 am (UTC)(link)
Hello strange magic man, have a pink-haired chick in black and gray. Sensible and chic winter attire for any city slicker. "You do what you can live with. Magic, power, secrets, none of that matters to the question you didn't actually ask. You do what you can live with, and then you live with it. Or you don't."

Maybe it's the droop of her shoulders or the way she won't make eye contact, but she might just know what she's on about.

"Cute cat. She friendly?"
brave_heart_verity: (I don't believe it)

[personal profile] brave_heart_verity 2016-02-02 04:31 am (UTC)(link)
"Verity." Her gaze lifts to meet his finally, and yes, she shakes hands with him. The answer to his question is probably that sorrow in her eyes. Living with the thing you can't live with sucks.

After their handshake she offers her hand to Jasmine, low enough to not be threatening and palm up. "Hello, Jasmine." Kitty can sniff and wonder what all those weird and exotic scents are if she'd like. Verity smells like different kinds of magic, cooking, and chao. Good luck figuring that out.

"You're assuming there are only two options."
brave_heart_verity: (profile: I wish)

[personal profile] brave_heart_verity 2016-02-02 10:08 pm (UTC)(link)
Because they don't live in a fairy-tale? She never did. (She kinda did for a while, but there was no 'happily ever after' and it all ended badly. Hers was the story that other stories whisper about and tell their children to avoid.)

Verity will shake the cat's paw solemnly before offering her some scritches behind the ear. Cats, like gods, need to be handled with care.

"You could let them kill you. But we'll call that 'Plan No'. You could arrange a scenario where any action they take against you is met with at least equal losses on their side. Mutually assured destruction. You could disappear. It's a big multiverse, and that kind of heroic sacrifice is considered so romantic in some circles." She personally doesn't go for it, but to each their own.

"You could tell the people who're in danger what's going on and let them decide the course of their own fate. That's what I'd do."
brave_heart_verity: (cautiously optimistic)

[personal profile] brave_heart_verity 2016-02-03 12:00 am (UTC)(link)
It's a good day when the cat allows pets. She must be doing something right with her life.

Reading between the lines isn't a speciality of hers, but she's been working on getting better at it. It comes in handy in a place like this, and really, nobody loves a literalist.

"It loses some of the heroic romance, but what it lacks in storybook appeal it might make up for in the delights of informed consent and new allies?"
brave_heart_verity: (looking down)

[personal profile] brave_heart_verity 2016-02-04 05:58 pm (UTC)(link)
Very honored.

"In an ideal world, this wouldn't be happening at all," she reminds him quietly. "Maybe they won't all stay. Maybe none of them will. But if you really care about them, you have to respect them too." She looks down at the tea or alchemy or whatever equipment he's set up, wondering for a moment what it's for.

"And since you seem convinced you're going to lose them one way or another, isn't it better you part on honest terms?"
heirtothearcane: (Working through falsehoods)

[personal profile] heirtothearcane 2016-02-02 11:15 pm (UTC)(link)
Admittedly, it's the cat that catches his attention initially. As much as he loves animals, Viatorus rarely comes across them. Anything resembling tea also is worth his time. And then there's the final ingredient... a magic-related question.

He thinks quietly as he approaches and hovers closer. Taking some time to fully consider the question, he's quiet when he replies. "Can you... not be you? Or... make it too troublesome to come after you? Redirect his focus somewhere else?"
heirtothearcane: (Quiet revelations)

[personal profile] heirtothearcane 2016-02-03 12:03 am (UTC)(link)
Cats staring is nothing new, but he does have to make some effort not to stare back. As he understands it, that would be rude. Even if she is a pretty cat.

The man's words surprise him more. The term she chooses is a little unexpected. The first time he arrived in the Nexus, and in several instances since, people reacted badly to the idea of talking to someone who uses magic. Perhaps people are more welcoming in this man's world, but Viatorus has to take a second to take in the term, and then consider the answer.

"And... what is this other person?"
heirtothearcane: (Working through falsehoods)

[personal profile] heirtothearcane 2016-02-04 08:02 pm (UTC)(link)
"So... you're a hedgewitch and he's a sorcerer..." He says it aloud to get his thoughts rolling. It's clear from the way his eyes lose focus and look elsewhere that he's working through this problem. That's what he does, after all. Finds a problem, and does his best to solve it.

"You... can approach this in a few different ways, I suppose. If you could make yourself invaluable, perhaps. Necessary. If not to this person, then maybe to someone equally powerful, or respectable." Viatorus shifts his weight from one foot to the other. "I don't see why you shouldn't involve other people. Friends would almost certainly want to help you, and a hedgewitch's greatest power might be the friends they make while practicing their craft. Even if you can make yourself too troublesome to be harmed, it would be a solution."
shardofwinter: (Large Grin)

[personal profile] shardofwinter 2016-02-03 01:53 am (UTC)(link)
Whether Reynard managed to sneak over, or simply appeared nearby is difficult to tell, but he does end up standing nearby. He watches and listens, a vaguely amused expression resting on his features.

"Running away from your dear Count?"
shardofwinter: (Adding opinions)

[personal profile] shardofwinter 2016-02-04 02:06 am (UTC)(link)
Sauntering over casually, he takes the container and gives it a small, half-hearted examination. When Fabian explains, he looks up at the witch.

"Either way: Lucky me," he says with a wide grin that suggests he knows just how bad that joke is.

Setting it down again for the moment, his eyes fall upon the cat and he lifts an eyebrow. "I'd offer to stroke you, my dear, but I would frost over your coat."
u_can_have_it_4_a_song: A Man of Wealth and Taste (Default)

[personal profile] u_can_have_it_4_a_song 2016-02-03 06:27 pm (UTC)(link)
"You must forgive me, quibbling over nomenclature," opens a thin man in a well-tailored suit, leaning at ease on an ebony cane with a silver head, "but it changes so much between worlds and disciplines that it can be hard to know: what constitutes 'black' magic where you're from, and sets it apart from more moral means?"

Glancing to the cat, he adds, "you have an exquisite companion. Is she averse to strange hands?"
u_can_have_it_4_a_song: A Man of Wealth and Taste (Default)

[personal profile] u_can_have_it_4_a_song 2016-02-04 02:33 am (UTC)(link)
There is certainly something to the thin stranger that evokes thoughts of aristocracy. Those chiseled features, that regal bearing--such is the stuff of princely aspiration. There is also a feeling about him, to the magically sensitive, of a warm, wild magic that was never truly held in human hands, but has long dwelt under hills and in summer lands of eternal twilight.

"Oh, is that all?" To the cat, he presents an open hand, palm-up, for inspection before (presuming approval) scratching her ears. Tsking softly, he addresses her, a singsong note entering his voice. "Your companion's got a problem with squeamishness, hasn't he? Ye~es. I'm sure you've tried to teach him right, but there's only so much one can do, hmm? You both may call me Schön."

Lifting his gaze back to the boy (although the ear-scritches continue), he adds, "that's hardly a problem at all. Merely a matter of seeing the ingredients ethically sourced. As for unnatural change--you're mortal, what do you expect to do? Plant a seed, you've made an unnatural change. Weed a garden, unnatural change. Feed a starving child--unnatural change. Are these things wicked? Are these deeds black? Worry less about the tools than the intentions."