Tea in the Gardens and Antechambers

[kaolinandbone]

As the many multiversal guests are gated in, singly or in groups, a crowd slowly begins to form in the entry hall. Lioncourt looks up from her meditation break and claps her hands twice: in moments, a dozen automaton servants file out from the adjoining rooms, hands of gleaming white porcelain holding equally elegant china tea-sets. A pair of the automatons open the doors at the far end of the hall, revealing a tiered rose garden, the stone benches dotted here and there ringing a large central clearing.

"Tea is served, either here or in the gardens: I would appreciate it, however, if some of my guests might proceed onward so as to reduce crowding."

Comments

Re: Thorn (and Dotted Lines)

[onwhatwingswedareaspire]

Thorn turns in his direction as soon as she hears this over the background noise (far farther away than normal human hearing should have been able to pick him up), and heads toward him. "Dotted Lines?" she asks, when she reaches normal-hearing range.

Re: Thorn (and Dotted Lines)

[dotted_lines]

He turns toward her voice. "Thorn! Right? Hello there!"

Re: Thorn (and Dotted Lines)

[onwhatwingswedareaspire]

"Yes." Is that a tiny bit of a smile? "We could probably have planned that more effectively. How have you been?"

Re: Thorn (and Dotted Lines)

[dotted_lines]

"Probably, yeah. But it worked out okay!" That is a tiny bit of smile! "I have been really great, recently! How about you?"

Re: Thorn (and Dotted Lines)

[onwhatwingswedareaspire]

This seems to be a bit of a difficult question. "Busy, mostly," she says, eventually. "It is good to hear that you have been well."

Re: Thorn (and Dotted Lines)

[dotted_lines]

"Thanks! Have you had any luck finding out whether it'd be safe for me to have a look at your world and try to help with things?

Re: Thorn (and Dotted Lines)

[onwhatwingswedareaspire]

Thorn brightens. "Actually -- we do not yet have an answer on how safe it would be, but we do have a work-around." She looks around, observes Tyche is busy in a conversation, shrugs, and continues. "I do not quite have a handle on the necessary processes yet, but Tych can do an interdiction ward against the virus. That does not protect things around you, but since it also prevents you from acting as a carrier it should secure this particular application."

Re: Thorn (and Dotted Lines)

[dotted_lines]

"Oh, good!" He glances up, then toward the doors, then back to Thorn. "Would you like me try and take a look now or later? And how long does the ward last, and is ze available now? Where and how is the ward made? There isn't anything unusual in my blood right now."

Re: Thorn (and Dotted Lines)

[onwhatwingswedareaspire]

"At any point after we get the ward on you would be fine; there is nothing urgent. The interdiction ward should be indefinite unless someone who knows alethics destroys it, which should hopefully be relatively unlikely.

"The procedure is fairly simple: it needs an isolated clean space -- Firewall has a warded clean room for this purpose -- Tyche draws a circle which you stand in the middle of, there's a sacrifice to power the spell; we've been using blood, since small quantities are relatively powerful -- I got that part since Tyche does not, well, have any -- and then that has to be burnt or evaporated, and then the spell takes effect.

"What do you mean about potential unusual things in your blood?"

Re: Thorn (and Dotted Lines)

[dotted_lines]

"Okay. That's good. It'd be a real waste if it wore off quickly or could be easily destroyed.

"That sounds like a fairly normal ritual. Couldn't you just let the circle absorb the blood instead of burning or evaporating it, though? If there was anything unusual in my blood, like drugs or insects or whatever, it might not be safe to use it to power a spell."

Re: Thorn (and Dotted Lines)

[onwhatwingswedareaspire]

"It would be be somewhat difficult to renew it, yes.

"We could, but then it would be less efficient and thus need more blood. Because of... weird... magical physics-things.

"Why would you have insects in your -- is that an Eventide phenomenon?"

Re: Thorn (and Dotted Lines)

[dotted_lines]

"Really? I would've expected it to be more efficient to let the blood soak into the circle, so the power wasn't wasted in other things instead. What is the circle made out of?

"Uh, do you not? Like, it's not common but they can really mess stuff up if you get them one day and try to do something that needs blood without taking them into account. If you don't have them at all, they are probably an Eventide phenomenon. Or possibly just a Night Vale phenomenon, I think I heard they have sharp rocks in Desert Bluffs, although I'm not sure if insects and rocks are mutually exclusive."

Re: Thorn (and Dotted Lines)

[onwhatwingswedareaspire]

Thorn spends several long moments staring at him in horror. (It does not actually seem to be directed at him, but rather a response to that that statement, which seems to have been alarming for some reason.)

"Um," she says, eventually. "Um, the only thing I know of that we have like that was that one exsurgent strain which.. you probably don't want to hear about."

She coughs. "The -- the circles. It has something to do with sacrifice -- it is more destroyed when it is evaporated. The circles are runes, generally made out of whatever materials are most convenient and do not disrupt things."

Re: Thorn (and Dotted Lines)

[dotted_lines]

Steve is not entirely sure how to react.

"Uh, sorry. It's probably a completely different thing, the bugs are harmless, wouldyoulikeahug?"

Re: Thorn (and Dotted Lines)

[onwhatwingswedareaspire]

"I... sure." She holds out her arms vaguely.

Re: Thorn (and Dotted Lines)

[dotted_lines]

Moving slowly, to allow her to change her mind, he puts an arm around her. After a few seconds without an averse reaction, he progresses to wrapping her in a two-armed hug.

Re: Thorn (and Dotted Lines)

[onwhatwingswedareaspire]

Thorn kind of... clings. He could probably break her grip and get away if he wanted to, she is not trying to hold him there, just... clinging. Rather a lot.

Muffledly, she says, "How the hell can those things be harmless in your blood?"

Re: Thorn (and Dotted Lines)

[dotted_lines]

Steve doesn't need to escape. He hugs Thorn much less gingerly, although he doesn't cling as hard.

"They're really small, and they don't do anything, and they all die off and disappear in a few days. It's just surprising if you're not expecting it, and it's bad if you try to do a ritual while they're there."

Re: Thorn (and Dotted Lines)

[onwhatwingswedareaspire]

"They, they probably do, do not 'hatch' inside people in-into--" Thorn shivers. "Not talking about that. Right. Sorry. TITAN-spawn got my team."

Thorn continues to cling.

Re: Thorn (and Dotted Lines)

[dotted_lines]

"They do not."

He hugs her slightly tighter.

Re: Thorn (and Dotted Lines)

[onwhatwingswedareaspire]

It appears that Thorn will continue to cling indefinitely. He might have to say something eventually.

Re: Thorn (and Dotted Lines)

[dotted_lines]

Well, she can definitely keep getting hugs.

After a while, he says, "In Eventide, if you're doing a ritual, you make the circle out of bloodstones, and they absorb the blood to power them."

Re: Thorn (and Dotted Lines)

[onwhatwingswedareaspire]

"Huh," Thorn says. "What are bloodstones? What kinds of rituals do you do with them?"

Re: Thorn (and Dotted Lines)

[dotted_lines]

Distractions are often helpful.

"Bloodstones are a kind of stone, dark green with little bits of red or sometimes yellow. You can use them for minor physical or mental protection, simple scrying, astral projection, or communication with other people in bloodstone circles"

Re: Thorn (and Dotted Lines)

[onwhatwingswedareaspire]

"Huh." Thorn says. "I wonder if that is related to alethics. Most likely not, but if it is that might make doing something about Eventide's state easier."

She is silent for a moment, clearly thinking, and then adds, "How are different rituals distinguished? Are there any symbols?"