barring emergencies

[the_very_best]

Bella's not sure where she has wandered. She thought she was about to walk into a shop, but this appears to be an unattended bar. With none of the windows associated with the shop she thought she was entering. It could be an elaborate psychic assault of some kind, but it doesn't feel very... assault-y... and she was in the middle of a town and doesn't think any humans want to sic their 'mon on her. It's strange. She approaches the bar, looking around warily, hand hovering near her belt.

with Max (Benedict)

with Earth and Lightning (kappa)

with Ann and Sabrina (kuuskytkolme)

Comments

[from_scratch]

Revelation opens his mouth and gestures at the bar, rethinks what he was about to say, and says, "Informative napkins, but it's possible you shouldn't interact with their source."

[pythbox]

"Hmm. Yes," says Earth.

"Unless you happen to know you're safe from the thing," says Lightning to Bar. "Do you happen to know you're safe from the thing?"

[from_scratch]

I will be quite all right, but your worry is touching, says Bar. It will likewise be entirely safe for her to accept her free beverage and any she cares to otherwise obtain directly from me.

"She says it's fine," Cam reports. "Both ways, beverages included."

[imeanforever]

"Okay. And you were so concerned because?"

[from_scratch]

"The bar's name is Bar."

[pythbox]

"Are beverages usually a problem?" wonders Earth.

[imeanforever]

"There are two ways for my kind of magical servitude to happen - learning somebody's real name, or feeding them. The feeding thing is mostly a problem between fairies and mortals - I can go foraging and not worry if somebody has some long lost claim to a tree I pick nuts from or something as long as I'm not actually stealing - but I wouldn't take food from a strange sort of person without being sure."

[pythbox]

"Well. Would you like to help us out?" inquires Earth. "If so, I should probably tell you my element, because it's not very likely that you could interact with elementals for long without learning someone's."

[imeanforever]

"I think I want to know more about what's going on first, but I am generally opposed to the servitude thing and haven't got anywhere with my world's version yet."

[pythbox]

"In my world, there are elementals and humans. Elementals have wings and halos, like my vines or his sparks, and are very magically powerful in our own element; magic-using humans have affinities for multiple elements, but can do much less with them than we can. Magic-using humans can also create amulets that bind elementals to obey whoever last touched them. Elementals can't interfere directly at all with our own or others' amulets. Humans consider it unsafe to let any elementals go free, and we're very valuable and useful for doing magic with, so they capture any of us that they find. My friend and I are part of a university collection, and we've been trying to find someone who seems like they might be able to steal and break all the amulets in the collection. But I don't know if it's possible to break an amulet without using my world's magic to do it."

[imeanforever]

"If I got the name of a human who could do magic, I could make them do it, but I wouldn't want the human to get hurt following my orders."

[pythbox]

"If you stole all the amulets and brought the elementals here and explained everything to them first, that might not be much of a problem. Humans think we're unavoidably destructive, but I don't. I would avoid surprising busy elementals with sudden freedom, particularly if they're upset or traumatized, which we frequently are, but I think we have the chance to do a much better job than that."

[imeanforever]

"The human will probably be upset and traumatized regardless, but I suppose I can put them back afterwards? How does the door work?"

[from_scratch]

Cam hands her his rundown on the mechanics involved.

[imeanforever]

"So - where are you, exactly?" she asks the elementals.

[pythbox]

"We were just coming back into the building where the university elementals are kept when we're not in use. If I hold the door and someone walks out and goes around front, and deals with the amulet-minder somehow, they could take all the amulets right off their hooks. You might want a bag to put them in so nobody sees you carrying off a double armload of amulets before you get back here."

[from_scratch]

"Are there none checked out right now?"

[pythbox]

"I'm not completely sure, but I think so."

[from_scratch]

"Stroke of luck. You know the minder's name for Promise?"

[pythbox]

"The shift could have changed while we were out, and I'm not sure I remember who it was... either of us," with a gesture to Lightning, "would probably recognize who it was, but we might not know them by name, just by sight. You could chat with them a bit and find out that way, I guess. It would probably have to be you, wings off and tail hidden, because if Promise walks around the university with those wings she'll be mistaken for a new kind of Earth hybrid and there'll be a frenzy to capture her."

[imeanforever]

"I will?"

[pythbox]

He spreads his wings illustratively.

"Hybrid elementals tend to share characteristics with their component elements. You have very Earthish wings, and no Earth halo."

[imeanforever]

"I do not," she observes, "appear to relevantly know your name - which might be bad, in my world if you start with no name someone else can name you."

[pythbox]

He folds his wings and shrugs. "If you think you're at all likely to accidentally name some elementals, you can try me first and see what happens."

[imeanforever]

"You're sure you don't want to go off with your friend and name each other? I can't name someone by accident and apparently it doesn't happen much in your world to worry about my overhearing."