[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

[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.

[eternalmagic]

Ahhh, I should have guessed it. [Drat!! Whatever was he thinking.] I will need to hear you imitate someone's voice on your own now, though. Since you opened that door.

[spellslots]

[If Mordred is expecting him to back down from this challenge he's very wrong.]

You're from Earth, right? Pick a famous actor or whatever, I've got to have watched enough movies by now to know most of them.

[Oh honey. There are so many movies.]

[eternalmagic]

[Adorable. Honestly, he needs to think of a movie first -- but hey, if Taako has seen most of the movies then how about an easy one?]

Mandy Patinkin.

[spellslots]

[It takes him a second to place the name, but he has seen Princess Bride, so that's the first thing that springs to mind. He hums to himself as he mentally runs through a couple of lines, then, in a pretty good imitation of both the accent and tone:]

My name is Indigo Montoya, you killed my father, all that crap? I should show Magnus that movie sometime, he'd like all the sword fights and romance. I way preferred Labyrinth, but the Princess Bride wasn't bad either.

[He could've just repeated a monologue word for word, but that's not really how to show a good imitation.]

[eternalmagic]

[Wow.

Mordred laughs.] I guess you really don't need the gum.

"indigo" thanks autocorrect

[spellslots]

[Still in the voice:]

The gum helps when it's something outside my range, like, anyone with a deep voice I'm shit outta luck. [And then back to normal.] I spent a whole fucking year reading up on voice acting after ending up this totally empty world cause some chucklefucks had tried to pull the plane of magic into the material plane.

[And everything died.]

I wasn't gonna say anything

[eternalmagic]

...I'd really have my work cut out for me if I ended up in your universe.

[Maybe he will GO THERE.]

Are there any natural laws that actually apply?

i saw my shame and had to acknowledge it

[spellslots]

I mean, yeah? There's rules to how magic can be used and how the world works. We've got gravity? And thermodynamics and shit. [That's a big word.] It's all relative, right? What's normal for me might not be normal for you.

[There are plenty of natural laws that apply to Taako's world and the other worlds he's been to, they probably just don't match up to what Mordred might expect.]

[eternalmagic]

[Relative indeed.] Well, you're not wrong. [He tilts his glass.] And for what it's worth, I respect your self-proclaimed title a little more.