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Tweak says, "Save the snails."

eli is from the darkest timeline (skittish) wrote in pandorarpg,
@ 2012-01-16 14:03:00

Entry tags:

!status: complete, ^date: november 12 2003, character: adrian pucey, character: elijah chambers

Characters: Eli Chambers & Adrian Pucey
Setting: Ministry of Magic, by the lifts around 1100
Rating: Worksafe, because they are at work...
Summary: The Living Inferi invasion hits the Ministry and Eli wants to take it apart and figure out why...and all before his morning coffee break.

It wasn't uncommon for Eli to take a break from his labs late in the morning to go for a walk and stretch his legs. He had always claimed that time away helped him process whatever he had been working on and it wasn't an unfounded belief. There had been a number of times when standing in the queue for coffee he had figured out that one last piece and gone rushing back to the Department of Mysteries caffeine forgotten.

Today was not the day to forget the caffeine regardless of any great breakthrough. He had been putting in extra hours the past two days trying to make headway before Friday on his unsanctioned project regarding the nightmare-memories. Eli was getting close and having the nightmare again last night had given him some of the details he was missing, but he couldn't expect to create a replica as close to his own memories simply because this wasn't his. Still, he was sure that by Friday they would have something to work with and a decent selection of test subjects to choose from at the birthday supper. Hopefully they would have answers soon about how it worked and then he could figure out a way to make it stop.

The lift doors opened and Eli straightened himself out to exit. It took him the span of four steps to realize that the man in grey wasn't just annoying that woman with the stack of files, but actually hurting her. That wasn't right, not right at all. It wasn't his place, but now that he saw it he couldn't just let it happen. Not when there was something familiar about what the man was wearing that didn't sit right with him. "Hey!" He said, tapping the man on the shoulder with his wand. "What do you think you're doing?"

The man turned to him, allowing the woman the space to slip away. Of course that meant that the man came at him with no real fine motor skills just sort of looking to maim like an inferius or something. His mind paused at, which allowed the man to back him into a corner. Inferius? Why would there be an inferius roaming the halls of the Ministry? Suddenly any sense of surprise or fear was replaced with a sort of curiosity with his mind working in overdrive on how to leverage this situation.

"Why don't you do something useful and call for help?" He called out to the woman still staring at him in horror. Absolutely useless, he was sure, but he still had a wand and the knowledge that these things were afraid of light and fire, but otherwise rather magic resistant.

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everupward
2012-01-26 09:16 pm UTC (link)

Adrian had to pause to wrangle the creature back under control. Nothing seemed to deter it from its intentions, which seemed to be sheer destruction. By this point he was almost as curious as Eli as to what made these things tick, but he was still far more concerned with getting it under control and then preferably destroyed. He would settle for contained if he had to.

Adrian had only ever been in the department of mysteries an extremely limited number of times and always with some supervision, possibly not just because it wasn't his department but because of who he was, and who his family members were. However he knew enough that it was called the department of mysteries for a reason. What he saw in there would have to remain that: a mystery. No in depth explanations, and certainly no spreading the news. He nodded shortly, slightly impatient himself. He was aware. "Yes. Let's get to work on this thing."

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skittish
2012-01-26 09:36 pm UTC (link)

In this case, Eli was the supervision, which was probably why he had been given a bit more of a hard time. Adrian wasn't the only one with questionable family connections - both by blood and by law. Of course he now knew that his father wasn't the bad man he was made out to be, he was. Although bad and good were such limiting classifications.

He made no big show of it, just directed Adrian through the circular room and into his lab. Eli wasn't exactly surprised to see one of his assistants there. It would have upset him more if the man had disappeared and yet he was going to kick him out either way - no need to involve someone else in this yet. "I need the room for at least the next hour."

The man nodded, quickly putting away whatever he was working on and securing the space. At least they all knew how to maintain his own very specific protocols so that no one touched things they weren't meant to. As the assistant left, Eli pulled out his wand and summoned a chair with restraints into the open space in the room. "Why don't you move that thing into the chair, make sure he's secure, and rather than interrupt later I'll even let you share you theories right now." Better to get that out of the way while he was pulling the supplies he needed.

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everupward
2012-01-27 02:37 am UTC (link)

Adrian moved the living thing into the chair, his nostrils flaring slightly at the perceived patronising he thought he heard at Eli's last comment. He'd even let him share theories? what as though he was being humored? Adrian frowned, wondering if he was reading too much into one word. Instead of saying anything on that matter, Adrian just replied, "This was a prisoner from Azkaban for certain. We both recognised the clothing it's wearing. It's not dead but it doesn't react to pain, as though it cannot feel. It's almost like it's empty. Someone used some kind of magic to make this happen, to make this thing sheer walking destruction. Releasing them into the ministry by the dozen was meant to cause fear, panic or possibly just a distraction.

"I'm more concerned with exactly what was done to get this thin in this state though, and I presume you are about to employ some methods to determine that?" Adrian fixed the very last restraint in place, watching in distaste as the thing still struggled. What would make this thing stop?

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skittish
2012-01-27 03:02 am UTC (link)

It wasn't outright patronizing. It was just Eli Chambers being Eli Chambers. He didn't just think he was smarter than most people he met, he actually knew it. So, in a way he was humoring him, but he was also sort of gauging how smart Adrian was.

Eli nodded along with the assessment. "So first we confirm it is in fact living, then rule out the imperius curse, perhaps even by testing what sort of pain threshold this thing has." Which would also determine if it could feel or not - and then if he knew if it could not feel, well that opened things up to a whole new realm of possibility.

He started in on the first test, muttered to himself and scribbling things down until he paused. "That's curious." With his wand he poked at the badge on the thing's top. "I don't believe that prisoners would be allowed any sort of decorative item." Eli carefully plucked the badge off the man's pajamas, being mindful not to let his teeth get him. It might not feel pain, but it certainly felt something struggling as it was against it's bindings.

"Do you recognize this?" Rather than interrupt his work, he levitated the badge toward Adrian for him to examine. In part because he didn't know what it was and also because he figured it would be best to give the auror something to do.

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everupward
2012-01-29 01:51 pm UTC (link)

Adrian watched the not-dead thing move struggling against its bonds, still seeming unaware of its condition. It had been wounded, and it bled, but it paid no attention to its injuries. Instead it simply continued to try to get free, presumably just to continue wreaking havoc.

Adrian carefully took the pin under control of his own levitation spell, not at all interested in touching it with his bare hands until he knew what it was. It could have been a cursed item for all he knew.

Whatever it was, it didn't seem to stop the creature. Whatever the pin was, assuming it was magical, which was easily detected, it wasn't causing the effect on the not dead creatures. Whatever was might have been cast directly on them instead. "You're correct. Prisoners weren't, and no, I don't recognise this," he said aloud. "I suspect there's something curious about this pin though. Did you happen see if any others were wearing them?"

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