nexus_sages | (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.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

((Before I tag in: Ver's got a curse. If you'd rather not deal with it, I understand, just let me know.))

((Go for it!))

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?"

Hello fellow wearer of dark clothing. He gave her a one over before concidering what she said. Something he didn't really want to hear. He knew, though, the situation was a little more difficult than your average quarrel and either side of the coin was a side he didn't particularly want to land on. Maybe the extended life wasn't the consequence. Maybe this was the real consequence. Sweet retribution.

What it really came to was who could he stomach the deaths of? People he didn't know or people he did know. Either way, people would die. Either by ceremony, or by consequence of doing nothing. Fabian sighed heavily and ran a slender hand through his hair.

"What if you can't live with either option?" He said with a frown, feeling like now would be a good time to dramatically groan and lay on the ground for the rest of what will likely be a very long life. He didn't, but he was tempted. Meanwhile Jasmine soaked up the afterward compliment with a haughty little 'why yes I am so cute, look how cute I am' tilt of her head.

"When she wants to be," Fabian said with a short laugh. "Her name is Jasmine, she's my familiar." A beat, and he extended a hand, "Fabian."

"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."

"Pleasure," he issued a smile.

Interesting name, but that's gone to the wayside when he sees those eyes. Yeah, he knows what that look means and it causes him to frown. It was always worse, somehow, when he knew people have been through something similar if not worse. Fabian often absorbed drama, felt like he could shoulder it (no matter how much he bitched about it and frankly sometimes he just liked having something to bitch about), but it was different when others went through pain. Why couldn't there be harmony. Why couldn't there be harmony?

Jasmine stared at Verity's hand and gave it a couple sniffs. After a bit of investigation, she decided Verity was alright enough and placed her paw in the hand as if shake hands as well.

"I don't see a third," he admitted.

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."

Verity will be happy to know that the ear scritches are received positively. Cats are, indeed, much like Gods. Especially if said cat is actually a very old spirit.

"I usually disappear," he said quietly, but by the tone of his voice it sounds like he's saying 'but I've grown tired of running' without saying it. He'd thought about letting Tobias kill him, because that's partly romantic considering the history. Then he's also thought that maybe that loss would hurt people, but... he often also doubts that.

The last option makes him frown even deeper, though. "I.. could."

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?"

Jasmine can get quite persnickety sometimes, too. Consider yourself honoured,

"I don't care so much about the romanticism," he idly picked up a gem and held it tight in his hand, "as much as it's tempting every now and then, the end result is always disastrous and messy. It's not beautiful at all, but I suppose that in it's own way holds a certain kind of beauty. Informing the people I care for, though? In an ideal world, people would stay by your side and forgive your trespasses but that's just not reality."

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?"