[open] who will go down to those shady groves

[eternalmagic]

who: Anyone
what: General CR building
when: September, post-Dragosta
where: Miscellaneous
warnings: idk are the Taaco twins gonna be there



.I. Waterbending
[Barring a few unfortunate incidents (no offense meant), he was able to avoid most of the chaos that took over the city during the Dragosta festival. Not that he has anything against festivals. He participates in plenty back home, albeit usually for ritualistic reasons. This one just happened to outpace his willingness to assimilate -- primary reason being that if his soulmate is here, he'd rather not know about it.

In any case, he only retreats for as long as it takes all the fuss to die down (especially for those damn fairy lights to dissipate), and then it's back to regular scheduled programming of trying to get Riverview's damn elements to let him play.

The weather's still nice. And water tends to be the most reasonable element to negotiate with. So he's swimming. If that seems weird, then joke's on you, because it's starting to work.]


.II. All-nighters
[Aside from classes, errands and the odd venture into the city, Mordred can typically be found in just one place.

Gramarye has swallowed him. He had high hopes for the resources available within the magical research facility, and so far he hasn't been disappointed. The opportunity to venture beyond the wall for a more thorough pass has yet to present itself, and Mordred isn't so dismissive of Bryn as his guide that he's prepared to risk her extreme displeasure by simply strolling out there himself. What that means is, he has to rely almost solely on Gramarye for information, and he has thoroughly devoted himself to the task of absorbing it.

It's been a few days. And nights. Requiring significantly less sleep means that a) he gets more accomplished, and b) his roommate Draco basically has an entire apartment to himself, minus one corner cloaked in darkness and stars.

This evening (morning? afternoon?) Mordred is three stories up in the library, balancing on a ladder as he selects the books he wants to work through next. Every once in a while, he'll toss a book sideways, whereupon it spirals down and settles delicately on top of a stack accumulating at one corner of a large table below. There are a few plants gathered on the other end of the table, like specimens, preserved in bubbles of what looks like shimmering glass.]


.III. Cocktails
[Through the graciousness of Millennial Loki, Mordred has acquired VIP access at the club Trixie.

However, he hasn't actually used it yet.

He's been sort of systematically trying out all of the places in Riverview that serve alcohol, not because he is often in the mood for a drink, but should the mood strike, ostensibly it's best to know exactly where to go. Trixie has turned out to be one of those places, not just because he gets along with the owner, but because the bartender likes to experiment and Mordred is not opposed to judging the results.

He's there tonight, leaning on the bar, distractedly nursing something that is three different neon colors and has a name he didn't bother to hear before he started drinking it.]

Comments

[spellslots]

Maybe it's a control freak thing, or maybe they just don't know how to look shit up on the internet.

[Taako paid zero attention to the initial video, but since then he's made the effort to familiarize himself with how the portal works, and he feels like a lot of the questions that get asked on the network are easily answered by like, a google search.]

[eternalmagic]

[Mordred prefers getting his hands (and eyes) dirty rather than check out the internet, although he is still less likely to ask a random person if he can help it.]

Maybe they're lonely.

[spellslots]

That's no excuse for being a paranoid dipshit.

[He's not a very nice person.]

What about you, planing to kick back here forever or are you gonna head home?

[eternalmagic]

[It's mildly endearing.]

Who knows? [He shrugs.] Always nice to have a change of scenery, but forever seems unlikely.

[spellslots]

Seems like we're in the minority, I know a few people who've decided to stick around, or are at least floating the idea.

[It seems baffling to him, for people who aren't dead in their own world, but this place is more interesting than Earth sounds, so maybe there's that.]

[eternalmagic]

[His Earth is plenty interesting; it's just that they could use some time apart, one way or the damn other.]

I can see the appeal, but vacations don't last forever and I've got things to do.

[spellslots]

And what kinda things would those be, pumpkin?

[Nine times out of ten, Taako is more than happy to talk about himself and only himself, but he's a little curious about Mordred, since he's not quite sure what the dude's whole deal is.]

[eternalmagic]

[Ffff, he'd much prefer Taako to steamroll the conversation, honestly. In fact, he tries to encourage it, especially so that he doesn't have to talk about himself. But...

Well, Riverview isn't the same as home, for a lot of reasons. And he really has no reason not to share some things, it's just a deeply ingrained habit to fly under the radar in certain ways. Taako has already offered up a lot about himself, willingly, some of which obviously hit a little close to home. So. With that in mind, Mordred leans on the counter and finally refills his drink with an impatient little roll of his fingers.]

I track down magic. Artifacts, relics, spells and the like. For research purposes, mostly [hah] but there are plenty of them out there that could do a lot of damage in the wrong hands. I do what I can to make that significantly more difficult.

[spellslots]

[Oh, well! That's an interesting sort of job ("job") and a few months ago Taako might've easily chatted about how he was doing the exact same thing, back in Fearun, but his work with the Bureau is a little more fraught now, with things the way they are with Lucretia.]

You're a real superhero. [He's being a bit of a shit, but not maliciously.] So what's the coolest thing you've found. Don't think too hard about it just go.

[eternalmagic]

[Snort.]

Coolest? Most of them are pretty horrific. Let's see; there's a black diamond with a very ancient rune inside it, called the Heart of the Whispering Dark. Any bearer of the rune carries the Whispering Dark with it -- the deepest blackness beneath the earth becomes a living thing that "speaks" to them. Turns to instincts and senses that would keep you alive in places that dark.

[He raises an eyebrow and lifts his drink.] I kept that one.

[spellslots]

That makes all the magical shit I got sound boring as fuck, even the umbrella that eats people.

[Why is it always vore.]

What kinda shit does the deepest blackness beneath the earth say?

[eternalmagic]

Not all that much, atually, and less that's especially nice. But most sentient things in the darkness can recognize an avatar of the Whispering Dark -- whoever's carrying the rune. They're very... well, let's just call it respectful. Now, what's this about an umbrella that eats people?

[Maybe don't show it to him.]

[spellslots]

Well that shit's gotta come in handy, not that I'm spending a lotta time in the dark. That's more a drow thing.

[The umbrella is at the coat check, so Mordred is safe for now.]

But, uh, Lup made an umbrella that eats magic, like if the wielder defeats them? Most of the time it'll just chow down on a wand or whatever, but if some dipshit is super magical it'll just go full vore.

[eternalmagic]

You're kidding. [He knows you're not. That's wonderful.] And what stops it from eating the wielder? Loyalty?

[How attached is Lup to that umbrella, like, would she be mad if someone took it for a personal collection, asking for a friend]

[spellslots]

Not losing a fight is like, a pretty big part of it.

[Since that's what fucked Lup over, in the end. The umbra staff isn't conscious in any sort of way, not enough to have something like loyalty. It never went after him, even when he lost, but that was because Lup was in control then.]

[eternalmagic]

I'd imagine so. [He does get a little more serious for a second, then.] Does she have it here with her?

[spellslots]

She hasn't made it yet, but I've got... hers, from the future. Her future, I guess? The time differences are kinda fucked up.

[The hesitation there is only partly confusion over language, it's also the fact that Taako found the umbra staff on Lup's corpse.]

[eternalmagic]

As long as it's accounted for, by you or your sister. [Force of habit here, but he does take this kind of thing seriously.] I wouldn't trust something like that even peripherally around half the magical people in this city.

[spellslots]

Don't stress, bubbale, I'm pretty sure it won't work for anyone who's not me.

[Lup wouldn't even let Merle or Magnus touch it, though he suspects the Magnus thing was just her being a shit.]

Or Ango, I guess, but if he shows up that's like, zero issue. A ten year old isn't gonna get into a whole lotta wizard fights.

[eternalmagic]

[Mordred just looks at him for a minute.]

I'll take your word for it.

[He wouldn't take just fucking anyone's, but there's no need to emphasize that. Nevertheless, he'll be keeping an eye out for that umbrella. Magic backup, just in case.]

[spellslots]

[Taako just winks, because he's incapable of taking anything seriously.]

Now, the mockingbird gum I've got, that shit's dangerous.

[No it isn't.]

[eternalmagic]

[Gum. Nothing in Taako's whole world can be taken seriously.]

Does that do what I think it does?

[spellslots]

That's gonna depend on what you think it does.

[He's the least helpful.]

[eternalmagic]

Bird bubbles.

[Straight face.]

[spellslots]

[That gets a laugh, but:]

So fucking close, my man, but it's more the mocking part. Let's you imitate someone's voice, not that I really need the help, I'm pretty fucking great at it on my own, but you can never be too careful.