Wry and Watchful (wryandwatchful) wrote in solsticerp, @ 2010-06-14 20:37:00 |
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Entry tags: | art, corwin, june 21 2009, sen |
Sunday: Post-Magpie Cool-Down
Who: Corwin, Art, Sen
Where: Corwin's house
When: Late afternoon
After opening all the windows and turning on all the fans to help clear out the smoke from a failed spell attempt, Corwin decided it was time for a break. They'd made some progress in getting things organized, identified, and cataloged-- though some items defied identifying, and Corwin's spells didn't always work, as evidenced by the smoke currently filling the workroom in his basement-- and Art was making noises like he wanted them to come eat already.
So he shooed Sen upstairs, following hot on her heels and still coughing, with the threat, "I'll choke if I stay down here another minute, and Art will start hitting us with his ladel, anyway. It's time to eat."
Senturion wanted to stay downstairs and poke around their things some more but when Corwin started coughing and Arturion made his and his food's presence known, she hurried ahead, always worried the stairs would give way underneath her weight. The smell of food was promising as ever and that helped with her reluctance to leave the basement. "We ought to invest in a mask for you," she told Corwin, patting his shoulders free of dust that had rained over them during one of the spells. "You and your delicate respiratory system could use one.
Unaware that Corwin had filled the basement room with smoke, Arturion was working away on dinner, flipping the hamburgers one last time in the pan. He'd used lean ground pork mixed with lean ground beef and they made a tasty base for his recipe. A few other ingredients were added, naturally. They seemed to be generally well-received. He had just toasted the buns and had laid Corwin's table with condiments: two different mustards, a green relish and a tangy dill one, ketchup, pickles, slices of tomato, lettuce... "Hurry up, guys!"
"I think I probably have one," Corwin said, voice hoarse and rasping uncomfortable with the smoke still down his throat. "I just don't know exactly where... probably down there, somewhere." He kept it for just such emergencies as this one, and for spells that required lots of smoke or gases. "Not sure how much good it'd doo against smoke, though." As they came up into the kitchen, at last, closing the basement door behind them, he took off his glasses and rubbed at his stinging eyes with the back of his wrist. "We're coming, Art."
"Perhaps you ought to use your mask," Sen chided him gently, smirking as she headed for the kitchen. "If we go back down there, I suggest we start by finding it and getting it clean." He really should take better care of himself, she thought but it was pretty soon overwritten by thought of food. "Oh, fancy," she told Arturion as she joined him by the counter, looking over the table. "Very colorful, a feast for the eyes as well as the mouth."
"Thank you," he said to Sen with a smile. "I aim to please." And that was true enough. "There's dessert, too, but only if you both eat everything on your plates." On hearing Corwin's breathing, though, he turned from his task and asked the mage, "What happened?" He looked at Sen. "Why is he breathing oddly?"
"One of the spells went awry, that's all," Corwin promised first one, and then the other: "And I just didn't think of the mask... we'll hunt it down before we get back to it, all right? Though I hope nothing else explodes into smoke, or anything else, until we call it a night. Once is enough." He coughed a few more times, too, and went to get himself a glass of water to hopefully clear out his throat before he got himself something to eat, lifting a curious cat off the counter and tossing him onto the floor before doing so.
Sen sighed and shook her head. "If necessary, I suggest you hold him while I search for the mask," she told Art. "He can be impossibly stubborn." She gave a cheeky smile at Art before snagging a small piece of food, popping it in her mouth before moving to set the table.
"Oh," Art said in response to Corwin's news. Magic could be a very potent thing and it wasn't good when a spell did something that the caster wasn't expecting it to do. His eyebrows rose at the news of things exploding into smoke. "Exploding? What has been done to the workshop?" Art was slipping from Julia Child Mode into Mr. Clean Mode. He even ignored the cat, which Coorwin gently displaced from the counter. To Sen, he said, "I will hold him, if necessary." Corwin could be stubborn, certainly, and though he was a large man, Art was a golem. Human Mage, meet Immovable Object.
"The workshop's okay," Corwin hurried to assure him, after a gulp of water. "Just filled with smoke, and I think the table might have gotten another scorch mark." Which would be just one among many, really, since he did things like this fairly regularly. Magic and Corwin weren't always very compatible, not unless it was golem-magic, and this most definitely wasn't. "All your guys's stuff is fine, too, before you ask." He went back to his water, swallowing it down greedily to clear his throat. It helped some.
"And is not as big of a mess as you worry that it is - if your expression is anything to go by," Sen told him with a quirky smile. "Though the walls may be a bit shady after this ordeal." She replaced the table cloth and then fetched some plates, careful to put favorites in their usual places.
Art had thought about his 'stuff', as Corwin put it, but hadn't planned to ask about it. He was more concerned with Corwin and Sen and their respective health. Corwin was more vulnerable, but he couldn't help it. "Walls can be scrubbed," he said, turning back to the burgers in the pan while Sen went about setting the table. "Lungs are trickier. We will find your mask, Corwin, and you will wear it or..." He lifted his spatula briefly and gave it a little shake in the mage's direction. "I will smack you with this utensil." Then he smirked a little. He was joking, of course, but his point had been made.
After guzzling down the whole glass, Corwin mimed ducking submissively. "I'll wear it, I'll wear it...." He didn't much like it, but he'd bow to golem protectiveness. Especially if there was going to be more smoke. He filled his glass again, then moved to the table to set it down at his own usual place. Again, he had to lift a cat off the table, a different cat, but he was used to that. At least Geordi was locked outside, pending being scrubbed off still, so he wasn't getting in the way. "So we've got burgers, huh?" It sounded good, especially Art's burgers. It also sounded good to think about something other than inscrutable objects from out of the ocean.
Sen sighed as the cat weaved itself past her legs. She didn't have as much patience for the animals as Corwin did. While she didn't hate animals, she didn't particularly care for any creature that couldn't be reasoned with. Unless they stayed out of her way. Pets tended to get in her way a lot more than she could stomach and the only reason she didn't throw them out was because it would make Corwin sad. "Naughty kitty," she muttered, narrowing her eyes at said cat as if that would prevent it from going up on the table again.
"Good," Art said, pleased that Corwin was willing to bow to this request. He wouldn't really have smacked his friend with the spatula. It wouldn't be respectful or sanitary, but it had been handy. The cat moved to rub against Art's legs as he switched off the stove and moved the burgers to a plate. It would go on the table and people could help themselves. The toasted buns and condiments were already there and Sen had set the table. Art's favorite plate was a deep blue one, with a darker blue, raised pattern along the edge. He didn't use it, of course, but it made him feel part of the meal. He liked to trace his fingers around it while the others ate. "And yes, we have burgers. Dinner is ready!"
"Don't mind Jade," Corwin told Sen with a little grin. "He's just hoping for handouts." Which the tabby would probably get from Corwin, if not the golems. He settled down with his water and added, "Thanks, Art... it smells great." And he was just now realizing how very hungry he was. Magic was hard work, even if you didn't really move around a lot while you worked on it, and good, solid burgers would recharge him pretty well, he was sure.
It was unusual for Sen to not have her full attention on her food but she was oh so curious about some of the things she had found and her thoughts lingered on the basement. She still made a happy little sound when dinner was announced, hurrying to fill her plate of yummy goodness.
Art brought the plate of burgers to the table and placed it roughly between where Corwin and Sen were sitting. Then he took his spot, sat himself and smiled down at his blue plate. This was, he felt part of the family, even though he wasn't eating, and it was very satisfying to see his cooking being appreciated. Running one finger slowly over the patterned edge of the plate, as if he was reading Braille and it was telling something interesting, Art said, "I've been thinking about the things in the workshop. They feel... off, somehow."
"They are," Corwin agreed, filling up his own plate and piling the condiments onto his bun and patty, liking everything on his burger, from lettuce to pickles to mustard. ""Off, I mean. Some of them. We're getting the weirdest readings off some of them-- perfectly normal ones from a few of the others-- and nothing at all from a lot of them. I'm pretty sure at least half of them are spelled somehow. That knife of Sen's is, though it doesn't seem to be dangerous to any of us. It doesn't seem to be dangerous at all, actually." Maybe it was a spell of concealment, or of healing, rather than damage. But he could be wrong; he could be wrong about all of it, he just didn't know for most of the items.
"The knife itself may not be dangerous," Sen told him. "But what can be done with it definitely is." She waved her harmless little dinner knife with a look that was more fit for a cartoon pirate, then shoved some of the food in her mouth with happy humming at the lovely flavor. "I've been trying to get that puzzle box I found open, no spell or anything, just weird symbols, I must have twisted it every which way and no go. Well, all the rational things have been tried and tested anyway, the rubix cube approach and Sudoku approach aren't doing a thing so, I'll be trying out every possible combination I suppose. There should only be a few thousand of them." She grinned around her second bite, making more happy noises at how good the food was.
Art nodded, then rested one elbow on the table and his chin in that hand. "That would explain why they feel 'off'," he said, looking across at Sen at the mention of the knife and then frowning a little at the puzzle box. Sen was very smart and analytical, so he was surprised that it was giving her trouble, though really, it probably wouldn't be called a 'puzzle box' if it was easy. "Have you tried asking it to open?" he suggested, sufficiently out of his league that he could ask just about anything and not be embarrassed about it. He was a curious golem and this was how you learned, after all. Asking questions.
"It could just be a toy that doesn't have a solution or a purpose beyond confusing kids," Corwin suggested around a bite of burger. "Or maybe it's spelled to never be solvable. Cursed, even. Though I didn't find anything on it when I tested it...." Which, he supposed, didn't really mean anything. Some of his spells found half a dozen curses on an item, some of them found nothing, and both times he was wrong. At least he was relatively certain about the knife, which had been his most concerning item. The skull, which he was still quite attached to, he didn't imagine was bespelled at all. He just wanted to know what it belonged to. "The broken hourglass had something to it. Not sure what yet."
Art's suggestion had made Sen grin in amusement. It was a childish notion but who knew when it came to magic. Maybe it would respond to a request- though she'd make sure nobody could overhear her when she tried that out. For all she knew, maybe it only responded to men, or humans, or undead things or anything really. But she'd keep trying. Corwin's suggestion however did not resonate with her and she turned a tiny bit defensive. "It's not a game for children," she told him. "There's something inside, I can hear it rattling when I move it. I will solve it too."
"If it can be solved, then you'll do it, Sen." Art had every faith in his fellow golem. "It wouldn't be a genie in the box, would it? That's lamps." His forefinger did a lap around the edge of the plate. "I think the hourglass had sand in it." It seemed reasonable enough. "'Like sands through the hourglass, so are the days of our lives...'" He watched way too much television...
Holding up a hand peaceably, Corwin finished chewing this time before he answered, "I was just offering another option. Just in case. You never know, we don't know anything about any of this stuff...." He set down his burger, which was half gone already, and mused, "I wonder where it all came from. It's not movie set props, not with magic on it, and not made out of things I've never seen before. Some underwater selkie kingdom? Another dimension?"
"Maybe we will find out when we finish sorting through all our items," Sen said, not overly concerned while her attention was on her food. "Another dimension, alternative reality, a floating magic city - we will figure it out soon enough." Mysteries begged to be solved after all, only the biggest once were stubborn about it. She just hoped this one wasn't one of those.
"Maybe we will," Art said, agreeing because mostly, that was likely the case, but also because he was generally an agreeable person - if a little OCD when it came to the cleanliness of a room and how to properly make Sloppy Joes. "I'm not surprised they aren't movie props, though it would be interesting to watch a movie being filmed. If there was an underwater selkie kingdom, wouldn't we have seen evidence of it sooner? The same with a floating, magic city..." His finger paused on it's slow journey around the rim of his blue plate. "Unless... that means something very bad has happened..."
"I don't have any idea," Corwin said, a little unhappily, pausing in his steady eating to frown and think about it. "I might have a spell to kind of... go back in time around them, in a kind of illusion, and see if I can see where they came from. I just got to look it up and--" He paused to deftly grab Davey off the table, where he'd just tried to jump. "--and see if it really does what I think it does, and whether I have all the ingredients." And whether it took more than an afternoon to work. He wasn't interested in a week-long spell, at the moment.
"That sounds dangerous," Sen said with a frown, pausing her fork's journey to her mouth to stare at Corwin with a warning look. She didn't like most magic spells but anything that tempered with time gave her chills. Mostly because they made her mind work over time in thinking of all the possible outcomes and alternative realities and changes overlapping and crisscrossing like mad and she really didn't like that. Granted he'd said it'd be an illusion but she still wasn't sure it sounded like a wise thing to do.
Art smiled fondly at his fellow golem. Sen often said 'That sounds dangerous' and related phrases, like 'Don't touch that' and 'I'll make sure it's safe first'. Protective and wonderful. "In all the science fiction stories I've read and seen on television, time is a tricky thing to work with. I recall something about stepping a butterfly, and everything goes wrong. I wouldn't want something to go wrong and have us... not exist because we... stepped on a butterfly... as it were." Art, who usually remembered many things properly, was having trouble getting this one right. Maybe his friends would understand him, anyway.
"Oh, no no no," Corwin laughed a little, holding up a hand. "It's not really turning back time... I'm no chronomancer. I don't mess with that. It's just like... a video tape, that you rewind. It just shows you, doesn't actually do anything to time. Ick. That'd be crazy to mess with, create alternate timelines or whatever." Corwin wasn't that bold. He really was only barely bold enough to mess with the spell he was talking about, and if both his golem friends were truly against it, he wouldn't. "It'd just be nice to have some idea of where they all came from. Then I'd have some kind of reference point, you know?"
"Sort of a history looking glass," Sen said, keeping a skeptical look on her face for a few moments longer before relaxing and nodding. "I suppose that might be alright, if you're sure it's not dangerous." She could protect Corwin and Art from a variety of things but magic wasn't one of them and Sen really didn't like feeling helpless like that. If something went wrong, she'd be powerless to do anything about it.
"Oh," Art said. He understood about video tapes and rewinding. When you rented them from the store, you were always supposed to rewind them and Art would feel guilty if he didn't. Of course, most of what they rented these days was available on DVD, so it wasn't an issue. "I would like to know where they came from, yes. That would be interesting. Like watching a special on the Discovery Channel, where they developed a computer simulation of the library in Alexandria and recreated what it was probably like before the Romans burned it to the ground." He thought that was such a terrible waste. All those scrolls...
"Then after dinner, that'll be the first spell we try-- on that dagger, first," Corwin decided. "If it works well, we'll try it on a few more, the ones that seem to have spells on them." He popped the last of his burger into his mouth and chewed, already considering another. There were extras, at least, and he had worked up something of an appetite. Plus, of course, Art's work was always great. "Better to have a plan," he added after he'd swallowed and reached for another bun, "than keep flailing around like we've been doing."
"After dinner, you stay here with Arturion while I go search for your mask," Sen reminded him firmly. "I'm not so sure casting a spell you are unsure of on objects that may already have spells on them is such a good idea." Of course Corwin knew better but it was still Sen's responsibility to make sure he didn't do anything that endangered him. "I think we've had enough smoke in the basement for today."
Art almost felt a little put out about be told to stay out of the basement while Sen went down by herself. What if something had happened while they were having dinner - well, while Sen and Corwin were having dinner - and one of their finds had transformed into a dragon or something equally fantastical? On the other hand, it made sense that one of them stay with Corwin, to protect him in case... something else happened while Sen was gone. Art tried not to be anxious about either outcome. He wanted to know more about the items, though. "We'll open one of the small windows, maybe two," he said. "Then if we have more smoke, it won't be a problem." Or as much of a problem...
"It's a passive spell," Corwin promised. "It shouldn't affect the things, at all, just... 'access' them a little, I guess you could say. But if there's smoke, we'll keep the windows open, and yeah, you can hunt down my mask for me." He said the last with a little amusement, that she was so focused on the mask thing. Honestly, he should've thought of it, himself, but he was too distracted with the idea of wanting to find out more about those things they'd found, and he just hadn't thought of it. "After I have another of these awesome burgers." He finished putting his second one together and took a bite happily.
"The spell with the smoke didn't seem all that aggressive," Sen said but there was a hint of a smirk there and her chiding was more playful than anything. After all, he was agreeing to her demands for safety and that meant she didn't have to grumble at him. "If we can see the spell as well, then Arturion must join us in the basement," she said. "I mean, if it plays out like a movie."
Art's index finger finished another slow, methodical circuit around the edge of his nice, blue plate. It was a shame he couldn't eat, in a way. Well, he could eat, but the magic would just store it an expel it later, so what was the point? His body couldn't use it... "If it plays out, like a movie, then it should be recorded. We might be too dazzled by what we see or it might happen too fast to absorb it all. That way, we can study the information later." Art smiled, pleased he'd thought of this idea.
"Not sure I'm good enough at magic for that," Corwin laughed a little. It was a nice idea, but way out of his league. Way out. He'd have to write the spell from scratch, since he knew he didn't have any that did that. "I'll be lucky if I can make the showing spell work, so I just hope nobody winds up too dazzled. Either that," he added after a bite more of his hamburger, "or I just run the showing spell again later. I mean, the 'movie' will still be the same."
"If you can show it, we must be able to record it," Sen said, liking Art's idea. "We should at least put up a camera, just in case. It's worth a try." She eyed Art's fingers on the plate as she grabbed some more food. Sometimes she too wished he could eat, his empty plate was oddly depressing.
Art smiled at Sen. They didn't always agree with one another - that would be spooky - but there wasn't much which they disagreed upon. Still, it always felt good to have her support. "We have a tripod and a recorder. We can set it up and leave it running, then we'll all be able to focus on the spell and what we see." One of them stuck behind the camera would be tricky, especially if something went wrong and they had to run from smoke. "I'm glad you like the burgers," he said, particularly to Corwin, who was having seconds. "If you perform a showing spell, we will be ready."
"Well, then I suppose you'd better get ready," Corwin said, munching through his burger determinedly. A little bit got torn off and offered to Davey and Jade, though, who were sniffing around the floor hoping for just that sort of handout. Corwin rarely could resist it. "As I'm going to hunt down the spell and set it up once I'm done with this. We can save dessert for after the show, how's that?" Dinner and a show. If not quite a show in the usual manner.
"I will make sure it's clear down in the basement," Sen replied, licking her fingers before she too grabbed a second helping, eating that one faster since she wanted to get going. Of course she could always heat one up later since she was sure to want a snack after the show. Knowing Art she was sure he'd even do it for her. "I think this time I will bring a fire blanket along. Just to be safe."
And Sen was having seconds, too! It was very satisfying to feed his friends - feed his family - and have them enjoy what he prepared. "A fire blanket is a good precaution," he said, his voice a serious tone. His face, however, was busy grinning. "Dessert for after. I will fetch the video recorder and tripod." 'Fetch' - another word the professor used. Art didn't want to be rude and leave the table while they were still eating, but he wanted to get started so he didn't slow things down. Torn, he sat and grinned, but his fingers stilled on his plate.
"All right, all right," Corwin chuckled. "I'm not that destructive. Most of the time." Okay, sometimes he was... but he didn't think he would be now! He popped the last of his second burger into his mouth, saving another bite each for Davey and Jade-- Georgia stole the bit that had been for Jade, and he was too laid back to even care-- and then grabbing his napkin to dab his mouth. "I'll go find the spellbook I think it's in, and see what I'll need."
Sen waved him off dismissively, her way of giving him permission to look for said book when she had her mouth full of food preventing her from speaking. She hummed contently as she chewed, making fast work of her second burger. "And now I go look for the mask," she declared when she was done, licking her fingers clean as she stood up from the table. "Thank you so much for the food, Arturion."
Corwin was going to find the spell and Sen to find the mask. These were signs that he was free to leave the table. Grinning, Art picked up his plate, stood and headed for the kitchen. He'd put away the left-overs with his usual efficiency and then track down the equipment he'd need for recording the spell. By 'track down', of course, he only had to go to the storage room and find the box labeled appropriately. He kept all three of them as organized as he could.
"Yeah, thanks," Corwin added, smiling at his friend, and he got up from the table. "Was great, as always." He scooped up Jade, since he could, and then headed upstairs to the little library of spellbooks and magical knowledge books he'd put together in his second bedroom. It took him a good fifteen minutes to pull out books, flip through, and realize it wasn't the right book, and put it back before he found the right one. The spell didn't even look as complicated as he thought it would. Awesome.
By the time Corwin had located his spell, Senturion had located his mask and hung it up on the basement door. She'd then gone on to clear the basement and get them ready to start working, making sure there was a fire blanket at the ready just in case. Was she worried? Yes, definitely. But she also trusted Corwin not to take unnecessary risks, though sometimes she thought that if she and Arturion were more vulnerable it would give the mage more reason to be careful. As it was, he was the only one really at risk and people always took better care of people around them than they did themselves.
Art finished his kitchen tasks, located the equipment and, with the tripod under one arm, he came down the basement stairs, video camera recording. "This doesn't look too bad," he said, swinging the lens toward Sen. "You've been cleaning, haven't you?" He set the tripod down and clicked the camera in place and pointed it toward Sen and the work table. Art crossed to stand by Sen and waved at the camera. "This is a test. Sound, stability..." He gave his 'cousin' a hug. "Smile for the camera and say something..."
And thus began another evening of amazing video footage, happy exploration - a little bit more smoke - and a few more photographs for Art's album. If either Corwin or Sen suspected that some of the video might make it onto YouTube, they didn't say anything at the time. It was probably just as well.