quicktoanger | Second Casefile: Casting Lines [Action/Written]

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Second Casefile: Casting Lines [Action/Written]

[Action]

I'd been keeping myself busy for the past week or so, starting when Molly arrived, and had thus far found very little success with anything. There were no thresholds to work with, there were no ley lines to tap into, there were no places rich with magical energy to utilize, and I'd be damned if I was going to try and open a gate to the Nevernever again.

I did not need that bitch of a migraine to come back.

So, along with my apprentice, I began scouting around the village looking for any significant mystical resources. She was also interested in the Filial spirits, but frankly, they sound too much like the Fey for my taste, and I've had quite enough of that, thanks.

Today, however, I was doing something more personally significant. I was going to make myself a new staff, because clearly the old one wasn't showing up any time soon. Unfortunately, this process takes freaking forever, and I had no idea where to start.

So I figured I'd phone a friend.

[Written- filtered from Richard Sharpe 3%] [Hey, he sucks at filters, give him a break.]

Hey. Any and all spellcasters, magic-workers, witches, wizards, and anybody else who knows how to work with magic and spellcraft, I was hoping to get some input on the local situation.

Are there any local magic sources, aside from the Filial spirits, that can be tapped into or accessed? Are any of the local flora and fauna significant at all, mystically? Have there been any difficulties you've had using certain kinds of magic? Anything considerably easier?

In essence- What's the deal, anyway?

[Feel free to encounter him as he surveys the village and surrounding environs- he'll be doing odd things like marking, taking paint scrapings, and making notes on a map- or as he surveys the woods for a tree that will provide adequate wood for his staff.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"There you go, mate! The currency of the realm, preferred-like. Right. One favor for one mystical animal.

Though perhaps I'd best show it to you in person."

Hey, he wasn't just showing me a mystical animal. He was adding Captain Jack freaking Sparrow to my bragging rights list. Easily worth a favor owed all on its own. Whatever mystical animal he showed me was just a bonus.

If it was legitimate. Considering who I was dealing with...

"And where would I have to go in order to behold this undoubtedly rare and majestic beast?"

"Good Spirits, of course! Bring along your most favorite tea mug!"

Because Captain Jack Sparrow had every intention of trying to drug this newcomer with a hallucinogenic salamander. Yes he did.

Tea mug. That sounded... interesting.

"Tell you what, I'll be there in an hour. Deal?"

"We have an accord. One hour. Put on your most mystical trousers, lad. Sparrow out."

Since Jack was already in the pub, he could enjoy a few more drinks before Dresden's arrival.

I wasn't sure what constituted mystical trousers, so I wore jeans instead, because typically they served me just fine in a mystical sense.

So, about an hour later, I arrived at the pub. And, as requested, I had stopped in the item shop along the way and found a tea mug. Actually, it was a coffee mug bearing the legend 'World's Greatest Loser.' I hoped this wasn't going to interfere with any necessary mysticism, because that would be a damn shame, wouldn't it?

And there he was, at the bar. I meandered on over and sat in the seat beside him, setting the mug on the table.

"Heya. Don't suppose you know a guy with a mystical animal, do you?"

"I might know a man, aye." Jack's tea/coffee mug had the phrase I've been to Wall Drug on the side of it. On top of the bar there rested a dried, shriveled-up salamander.

Jack nodded at the thing as steam wafted up from the hot water in his mug.

I peered at the dried and shrivelled corpse on the bar.

"Well, you might have told me it was pre-mummified."

I was rapidly becoming concerned that the tea mug might possibly have been related to the dessicated corpse on the counter.

"So, what precisely is this and why are we making tea out of it?"

"The Pelegosto believe it has shamanistic properties. Makes you dream dreams an' visualize...visions. Also, functions beautifully as a general analgesic.

You up for it, mate? Or you could just say the word, and this conversation never happened."

Offered a challenge by Captain Jack Sparrow. And I was gonna back down.

Not a freaking chance.

"Oh, I'm up for it. Never done a proper vision quest before."

"Right! First off, I say the magical words." There were no magical words. Jack was making this part up. "Eensy ponsy tikki ikki fondue." He poured some of his hot water into Dresden's mug, reserving some for himself, and dunked the salamander into it.

Man, he was gonna feel pretty silly when he learned I could do real magic.

I took a whiff of the tea. It smelled about as appetizing as fresh-poured tarmac.

"Lovely. How long does it need to steep?"

"Let me put it this way: the longer you steep it? The more exciting your vision quest will be."

Leonard McCoy had seen seals popping their heads out of the living-room carpet.

"How long would you recommend for a first-timer like me, then?"

I grinned.

"And how long would I have to wait for you to not mock me as a total pansy?"

"Sir, I barely know you. I'd say, though, that the total pansy period has passed already. Other than that, I can't quite pin down what one should and shouldn't have. The great shamans would have already popped it out."

Well. Captain Jack Sparrow had deemed my tea not-pansyish. There are high points in life...

I gingerly plucked the dessicated thing from my tea and plopped it onto a cocktail napkin, then brought the tea to my nose and smelled it.

"... Well, here goes my sanity."

I took a generous sip.

"Oi! Slow down, now! It's not always all unicorns and rainbows when a man drinks tea of that caliber!"

I frowned. I hadn't intended more than the sip, but apparently even that was an alarmingly high dosage.

Seemed like something to tell me in advance, actually.

That said, it apparently hadn't kicked in yet. Everything still looked fine. I wanted to tell him so, but...

Wait. I wanted to tell him so...

... Wait. No, I was trying to talk. Why wasn't I...

...Oh, hey, there it was. Apparently it was going to start with the cognitive-

"Everything still looks fine."

...Reasoning skills.

Hell's bells, what had I just gotten myself into.

"Course it does! You're in the tavern! Everything in taverns usually mostly always looks fine enough! I, personally, enjoy the sweet yet nutty flavoring of it." Jack dunked just the head portion of the creature in HIS hot water for a few seconds before taking a dainty sip.

See, now, see, that was just ridiculous. He only had it in there for a couple of seconds.

If I had the capacity for speech, I'd object to that, but apparently the delay between my brain and my mouth had undergone some sort of relativistic temporal shift.

Also, his hands were starting to blur. I blinked.

"Also? It's BRILLIANT for hangovers!" Look at those blurry hands, Dresden. Look how they swirl before you.

"This seems like it would intensify a hangover, somehow."

Huh. I could talk, as long as it was a snarky response. Go figure.

I was also becoming rapidly convinced that Jack was constitutionally incapable of holding his damn hands still.

Wow. There were some fascinating prismatic effects going on there.

"Hmmmmm...Nah. The headache, I mean. The pounding. This gets rid of it, mystically."

I was contemplating a response to that, but there was a problem.

And that problem is that I felt my eyes, my mind, opening up.

My Sight.

Oh, this was gonna suck. My Sight was opening up and I couldn't quite recall how to-

"Oh, holy hell..."

"You...you alright, son? You look as though you are slowly becoming a ghost."

Jack pushed back slightly so he could gain a better view of the other man. This salamander...this was apparently a potent one, by every reckoning.

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[action] You gotta help me out here, what're the typical effects like?

[action] I leave them ENTIRELY UP TO YOU. : D

[action] Lord in heaven, what have we done.

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Been long enough. I'm going there, now.

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