Harry Dresden (i_wizard) wrote in we_coexist, @ 2011-02-12 15:44:00 |
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Entry tags: | harry dresden |
Back to Work [Narrative]
immediately following this log
After putting Dinah to bed, Harry told Mouse to keep an eye on her. Then he shut the door to the bedroom, pulled aside a Navajo throw rug, and opened the trapdoor to the sub-basement. Before descending, Harry grabbed a heavy flannel robe and pulled it over himself. It had nothing to do with wizards and robes, though Harry suspected the stereotype began for just this reason; without heat, it was damn cold in his lab, making the robe a necessity.
Once the trapdoor was shut behind him, and his candles lit, Harry muttered, "You know, I'm the bloody Winter Knight. You'd think that would mean I didn't feel so cold in these temperatures."
On a shelf, Bob yawned in his skull. "Doesn't work like that, boss," he said. "Winter's still cold. You're still mortal." Then Bob's orange eyelights fixed on the wizard. "But if you're that cold, why not warm yourself up with the hot blonde in the fishnets?"
"Bob..." Harry warned.
"She's right there! In your room! On your bed! You could get all kinds of hot and--"
"Bob." The warning became a growl.
"Fine, if you won't, let me out and--"
"Bob!"
The skull sighed. "Fine, fine, fine. See, this is why you don't have a girlfriend."
Harry rolled his eyes. "No. The reason I don't have a girlfriend is because my last one was psychically manipulated into dating me, and the mother of my child is--" Harry cut himself off before he could finish, and glared at the skull.
Bob flinched. "Sorry, Harry."
The wizard sat at his worktable, and waved off the apology. "Tell me what you've learned."
"Oh. Well. This City... it's alive."
Harry looked up at the skull. "Meaning?"
"It's an entity. Sentient. Intelligent. And really, really powerful. I can't get any straight pattern to how the streets are changing, and the only thing that random is life. Some things stay put, though." He rattled off a few locations, guiding Harry to those places on the model. "The apartment here isn't going to be here in a few minutes, let alone tomorrow. We won't feel the changes, but the streets are going to be changing around us. Or with us. Haven't figured that part out yet."
Harry sighed. "Well, at least it's something. You can take Mister out for some more recon. You have my permission to leave for twenty-four hours, for that purpose. But if I find out you spent that time in another sorority house, Bob, I'll take you with me next time I see Mab."
Bob squeaked in fear. "That's just mean, Harry."
"Good. Because I mean it. Recon only. That is, information about this City and how it operates. If the streets change, use the tag on Mister's collar to find your way back here." The tag allowed Mister to move in and out of the wards safely, without Harry's assistance. Since it was keyed to these specific wards, it could be used to find the apartment, no matter where it had drifted. "And information on any vampires you find."
Bob blinked. "Vampires? Harry, you know vampires."
"Apparently not. There's some in the City that act different from Reds, Blacks, and Whites. I need to know about them. Or anything else you find. Except for nude or mostly nude females. We're looking at the supernatural things here."
The skull sucked it's teeth. "You never let me have any fun." A cloud of orange lights lifted out of the skull and swirled away, out the cracks of the trapdoor.
Harry glanced at the model of the City on the worktable. It had, of course, shifted again. Then he let out a sigh, and moved over to his alchemy set. The antidote for vampire narcotic saliva was scotch-taped to the table. Harry got out the ingredients, and spent the next few hours making a batch to have ready.