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tysonrefsgaard6-blog · 7 years ago

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Codes Totally free PS4 X-mas Motif Being Delivered Through Sony.

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edenfalling · 8 years ago

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Ooh! Homestuck, Dirk, Roxy, cuddle. It's the post-Sburb world, and there are too many people all the time, and only Dirk and Roxy want to flee screaming to a (pair of) faraway mountains. Bring back the blissful solitude of the post-apocalypse.

Notcompliant with the credits snapchats, because reasons. :) [2,700 words]

---------------------------------------------Some Little Talk aWhile of Me and Thee---------------------------------------------

The stupid part is, up until that one moment, Roxy washaving a really good night. All her friends (except Dirk, who hung grimly onthrough dinner and absconded immediately thereafter) together in one room, enoughdinner for everyone to eat their fill and then dessert on top of that, thepleasant ache of an honest day's work building the infrastructure of their newworld... yeah. A good night.

Except the thing is, as much as she needs people -- and sheneeds people a lot, needs that feedback loop of attention paid and returned --there's a big difference between hanging out online and hanging out with adozen people jammed together in a single room. And she hasn't been gettingalone time during the days either, always busy working with a crew ofcarapacians (who at least are quiet) and consorts (who are emphatically not).

Roxy doesn't notice the slow buildup of stress, but she canpinpoint exactly when the night tips from I-can-manage to oh-god-make-it-stop.

She's been kibitzing on the edges of Rose, John, and Jane'smeal planning session (defusing any baby disagreements before they grow intoanything serious), keeping half an ear on the Pictionary session Callie,Kanaya, and Terezi have going in the far corner, and watching Jade gleefullyannihilate Dave and Karkat at Mario Kart. It's maybe a little bit much to betracking all at once, but the satisfaction outweighs the strain until Davethrows a piece of popcorn at Jade, who teleports it into the tangle of Karkat'shair, who draws breath in preparation for an inside-voice-what-inside-voicerant, and Roxy is abruptly and completely done.Zip, zilch, finito, cutlery shop's closed up and all the merchandise is gone.

She shoves herself up from the warm and squashy armchair shestaked out as her private territory back when they first built this grouphouse, and says to nobody in particular: "I'm gonna go check on Dirk, it'sbeen a while since he noped out and I want to make sure he hasn't broken his neckor started a robot apocalypse in his sleep."

Rose and Jane break off their debate over the relativemerits of fish tacos and sushi to give her a pair of sharp glances. John justlooks adorkably confused.

Roxy dredges up a smile from her last reserves of sociability.

It must not be very convincing, because Rose frowns andtenses like she's going to ask if Roxy needs any help, or maybe even stand upand give her a hug. Her concern is like a warm mug of hot chocolate, but thething about warm mugs of hot chocolate is they're awesome on a frigid winterday after messing around in the snow for a couple hours, but this specific timeand place are more like a metaphorical scorching summer day when you're alreadysugared out and anything sweet makes you want to gag. In other words, amomdaughter's loving attention is nice in theory, but it's not conducive tonoping the fuck out of the room, not to mention if anyone touches her rightnow, Roxy might actually break down and scream.

Fortunately, Jane rescues her.

She does something to Rose -- elbows her? kicks her underthe coffee table? hard to say -- and while Rose is busy trying to regather hertrain of thought, Jane grins at Roxy, somehow managing to make the expressionboth obviously fake and equally obviously made of 24-carat solid goldsincerity.

"That sounds like an excellent plan!" she says."When you find him, tell him that Jade needs to run the latest plans forthe electricity grid past him, particularly the battery storage systems forevening the solar and wind outputs. I think the files are in the civilengineering dropbox account, so he shouldn't need to ask her for anything untilhe's finished reviewing and annotating them."

Roxy nods.

"Well, what are you waiting for? Scram!" Janemakes little shooing motions with her hands.

Rose, apparently catching on to Roxy's actual state of mind,smiles benevolently and waves goodbye. "Au revoir," she says in herperpetually dry tone. "If anyone asks where you are, I'll tell them I sentyou to give daddy dearest my love, perhaps in the form of seagull pie."

Jane rolls her eyes. John snickers and sticks out his tonguein mostly mock-disgust.

"Thanks, guys," Roxy manages to say, and flees.

---------------

After a indeterminate period of time trying not tohyperventilate in her en suite bathroom, she sits cross-legged on her bed andwonders if she ought to make good on her escape excuse.

Dirk's even worse with large groups than Roxy is and doesn'tmake any attempt to pretend otherwise, but he's still human (no matter how muchhe sometimes dislikes that fact) and even the most introverted human is, atbase, a social animal. And not all contact has to be as overwhelming as groupevents.

Roxy pulls out her phone, briefly contemplates calling him,then tosses that plan right the fuck out the window. Voices are bullshit. Textis their mutual mother tongue, and she'd bet at least half a baby universe Dirkisn't up for vocalizing right now.

-- tipsyGnostalgic [TG] began pestering timaeusTestified[TT] --

TG: the thing nobody ever tells you about other people ishow fuckin NOISY they areTG: amiright?TG: i never thought id say this, but i miss ourpost-apocalyptic disaster zoneTG: not like, the looming threat of the batterwitch n shit,but the quietTG: maybe even some of the survivalist stuffTG: rose and the crockerberts gave me the weirdest look wheni said we should make seagull pie for our next movie night extravaganzaTG: there is GOOD EATING on seagullsTG: and they make a nice change from fish you know?TG: i thought id finally gotten away from descaling fishwhen we ditched sea hitlers water hellscape, but nopeTG: here we are back to fish for every meal that doesnt comestraight from our alchemiters and dwindling stocks of gristTG: (its ok you dont have to talk back if you dont want to)TG: (i just wanted to bitch to someone who gets it)TT: It's cool.TT: I know exactlywhat you mean about the quiet.TT: If you're game toendure the ultra minimum of human contact, i.e., breathing within the samecubic meter of air, I'm on the roof by the south chimney.TT: If not, I can seethe dock and it's currently unoccupied.TT: Assuming this isa day when the incessant susurrus of waves will invoke positive memories ratherthan negative ones, that could make a decent temporary retreat.TG: awww, ur a sweetie, sitting watch over our friends likea depressed gargoyleTG: on due consideration im ok with breathing your grosspre-breathed airTG: maybe if we get really daring we can work up to touchingpinky fingers!TG: le gaspTT: Scandalous. What will the neighbors say?TT: But I'm down forperversion if you are, Ms. Lalonde.TG: k hang onto your panties, im coming up

-- tipsyGnostalgic [TG] ceased pestering timaeusTestified[TT] --

---------------

Roxy scrambles over the edge of the roof (she could justfly, of course, but where's the fun in that?) to find Dirk not just near thesouth chimney but actually curled up in the angle where it meets the solartiles, using the heat radiating from the bricks to counter the early autumnchill. He has his shades off in deference to the darkness, but his eyes are closedinstead of aimed up toward the frankly gorgeous light of the pink and whitemoons, both approaching full tonight.

Roxy flops back against the dark tiles of the roof, armsspread wide, and watches the moons flirt with thin veils of cloud. Her friends'voices drift out of the open windows downstairs, but distance and the ambientsounds of wind and wave blur them into a companionable sort of white noise. Theconsorts' various weekend parties are louder, but further away; noticeable onlywhen a line or two of song finds a favorable breeze or a new branch tossed on abonfire sends a gust of sparks above the trees and roofs of the slowly growingtown.

The carapacians' celebrations, of course, make no sound.

She and Dirk breathe in companionable silence for nearly anhour, while the white moon travels fifteen degrees toward zenith and the pinkmoon nearly twenty degrees in the same direction, edging toward partialeclipse. Roxy's still kind of giddy over the orbital mechanics of a three-bodysystem, and the difference two moons make in the rhythm of the tides. It couldtake years to work the changes into her bones.

She has years tospend on things like that. She spent her whole childhood isolated and trappedunder an incessant, shadowy weight. Now it's gone. She's free. She's not aloneanymore.

It would be nice if she were better at coping with thatchange.

Beside her, Dirk sighs, pulls his legs up to his chest, andrests his face between his knees. Something's gone cockeyed in his head again,and if nobody interrupts him he'll just debate himself into knots and grandiose'for your own good' bullshit stunts.

And hey, an hour of silence isn't enough to get Roxyanywhere near ready to face a crowd, but it's more than enough to talk to heroldest friend.

"The dumbest thing," she says, jumping straight inbecause what's the sense in wasting mouth noises on irrelevancies, "isthat weekend movie nights aren't even party-parties,nothing loud or crazy intense. It's just all our best friends hanging out oncomfy sofas playing goofy sleepover games, but stupid me got so wound up I hadto run screaming into the night. Otherwise I would've lost my shit at them overfish tacos and a popcorn fight, and that's just wrong with a capital R."

"Capital W," Dirk mutters, uncurling slightly andtilting his head until a sliver of orange iris is visible over the edge of hisright knee.

"Pedant," Roxy says, rather than draw attention tohis temporary lack of shades. "I just keep thinking, it shouldn't bug meso much. You've got a perfect excuse to flip out at extended socialinteractions, mister raised-by-robots. I actually had real live neighbors. Ishould be over this by now."

Dirk shrugs, which looks incredibly doofy when he's allcurled up like a pill bug. "As people keep telling me, brains aren'tparticularly logical organs. Besides, there's a pretty big difference betweensign language and a dozen plus people with actual vocal cords, some of whomhave a tragically shaky grasp of appropriate volume control."

"Ha. Yeah. Still."

"Still," Dirk agrees.

Roxy spreads her arms wide, staring up at the moons and theas-yet-unnamed constellations of their new universe, galaxy, solar system.Their new sun's a little brighter than Sol used to be -- a little smaller inthe sky, a little more pure-white than yellow-white -- and more like Alternia'ssun in its position vis-à-vis galactic center, which makes for some amazinglydense and brilliant starscapes. And she's saying this as a person who grew upwith no artificial light to blank out old Earth's night skies.

"Humans made the trolls' signs into constellationswithout any outside influence, just the shape of the universe orsomething," she muses. "I wonder if it's cheating to design ourconstellations ourselves."

Dirk shrugs again, a faint movement of shadow against darkershadow in the corner of her vision. "All our sessions were fucked from thestart; we had to cheat just to get out alive. What's a little more cheatingcompared to that? Ethical qualms aside, I'm pretty sure this planet isn't goingto be the focus of any future Sburb sessions. That dubious honor goes to the billionsof native planets kicking around this universe. If anyone's getting gentlymanipulated into using three-eyed cats and purple horrorterrors as part oftheir star myths, it's all those statistically inevitable aliens out there inthe wild black yonder."

"I bet their myths kick ass," Roxy says.

"I believe that's more or less implicit in thedefinition of the word. I'm not sure what they'll make of a hat or an LPrecord, though," Dirk says.

This time it's Roxy's turn to shrug. "Old-schoolD&D monsters, maybe? Or no, ten gets you one they'll go with crows andseagulls instead." She pauses, reconsiders. "Then again, Terezi'ssymbol is basically a giant lab tool with a shit-ton of cultural baggage, andKarkat's is kind of like, handcuffs, right? Maybe hats wind up as a symbol ofintellect and general badassery -- oh! or artificial life, like Frosty theSnowman's magic hat, 'cause of your robots and puppets thing -- and recordssymbolize creativity and art and stuff."

"Hats as a symbol of hubris and overreach, morelikely," Dirk mutters.

Roxy wriggles sideways until she's just close enough toflick the fingertips of her left hand against the side of his shoe. "Knockit off, dumbass. Nobody gets to badmouth my best friend -- not even my bestfriend."

Dirk unburies his face and meets Roxy's eyes straight on,one eyebrow raised. "I was under the impression that that title belongedto either Jane or Calliope. When did I inherit the position, and why was I notpreviously informed of this change in status? Are you sure you're followingfriend protocol correctly?"

Roxy flicks his shoe again. "Friendship is a bigcategory! You're all, like, different instantiations of the concept of 'bestfriend' -- Callie's my squee and kissing partner, Janey's my partner in crime,Rosie's my sister, Jake's my goofing off friend, Dave's my surrealism feedbackdude, John's my maybe-kinda-sorta other kissing partner, and so on and soforth. You, Dirk Strider, are theperson who knows me best in two and a half entire fucking universes. Okay?You're the one who knows what it's like. If I ever run off to be a hermit on amountaintop, I want you to come be a hermit on the mountain next door. We cansend heliograph messages back and forth, or learn how to yodel and shit, andonce a month we'll get together and have a wild and crazy hermit party, justthe two of us. That's the kind of best friend you are for me."

Dirk is silent for a long moment. Then he unwraps his righthand from his legs and lets it drop downward until his fingertips are justbrushing the soft, ticklish (completely un-carapacian) skin of Roxy's leftwrist, right over the veins carrying blood back to her heart.

"All that, back at you," he says.

Roxy blinks back a sudden rush of tears, and laces theirfingers together. Dirk lets her.

"Jade has some electric grid plans for you to lookover," she says after a minute. "You can do that anywhere,right?"

"Yeah," Dirk says.

"Then come seagull hunting with me tomorrow. Just the twoof us, out on the water. Like old times. I have a harpoon gun I've been wantingto try out, and we can tell anyone who complains that we're taking soundingsand stuff for potential tidal generators. Hell, we can even actually do that.But I miss you. I keep getting tangled up in everyone else and losing sight ofus."

Dirk squeezes her fingers. From him, it's as good as a hug.

"Yeah," he says. "It's a plan."

Roxy looks up at the night sky rather than try to put heremotions into words. There's a patch that looks a bit like a cat with wings, ifshe squints and takes some heavy artistic license. She holds up her phone inher right hand and adjusts the camera settings until she can snap a usefulpicture. She'll photoshop the constellation in later tonight and show it toDirk tomorrow: their friendship, immortalized in stars.

"Cool," she says.

They watch the pink moon overtake the white one in silence,fingers still entwined, the same air pumping in and out of their lungs.

---------------------------------------------

End of Fic

---------------------------------------------

It's still a little disjointed, I think, but whatever. Iwin. \o/

#liz writes stuff #homestuck #roxy lalonde #dirk strider #mini ficlet prompt meme #cotton candy bingo #asks and answers #in conversation with the internet #madamehardy #generalized content warning

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charlenehibbins-blog · 8 years ago

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Angling By Moon Stage.

GREATER LONDON (Reuters) - Millions all over the Western side half will definitely have the odds to see the Moon redden during the course of the year's only overall lunar eclipse early on Thursday morning, astronomers said on Wednesday. Another, identical pairing-off in between the Moon and also Venus will certainly take place on the night of Dec A collection that takes a look at eclipses, meteor showers, sunsets, dawns, moon stages, environment-friendly flashes, blue hours, clouds and other sensation observed overhead.

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Today, for the first time, PHYSICIAN David M. Kipping from the Harvard-Smithsonian Facility for Astrophysics (CfA) in Cambridge, Massachusetts, as well as his team, have started to search for a livable moon around Kepler-22b! The moon people, method the water vegetations manually making their food, numerous sorts of materials, building products, energy, construction materials etc

Hans Hatwig's Blödaren (which actually equates as The Bleeder) from 1983 is actually most recognized for being actually created by preferred stand out magazine Okej. Taurus is actually a planet http://havestrenght-onlineblog.info/eco-slim-pantip-%E0%B8%94%E0%B8%B3%E0%B9%80%E0%B8%99%E0%B8%B4%E0%B8%99%E0%B8%81%E0%B8%B2%E0%B8%A3%E0%B9%83%E0%B8%99%E0%B8%81%E0%B8%B2%E0%B8%A3%E0%B8%AD%E0%B9%88%E0%B8%B2%E0%B8%99/ indicator and this brand new moon asks for us to connect with mother nature; our team really feel even more harmonic with Environment. Native United States: There are tales from the Great Female radiating in the moon forever always supervising her children and also development knowingly. The moment of greatest trend is not always when the Moon is local to zenith or even low point, yet the time frame of the requiring still identifies during high tides. The 3rd full moon in a quarter which contains four rather than the common three full moons. Bella's expanding partnership along with Jacob as well as the dispute this leads to in her emotions for Edward create Golden New Moon a impressive and dynamic romance. NASA's Cassini space probe generated this six-image mosaic from Solar system, its own rings and also the giant moon Titan.

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repwinpril9y0a1 · 8 years ago

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Divertimento #123

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"Now, Bzeek spends long days and sleepless nights caring for a bedridden 6-year-old foster girl with a rare brain defect. She’s blind and deaf. She has daily seizures. Her arms and legs are paralyzed. Bzeek, a quiet, devout Libyan-born Muslim who lives in Azusa, just wants her to know she’s not alone in this life. “I know she can’t hear, can’t see, but I always talk to her,” he said. “I’m always holding her, playing with her, touching her. … She has feelings. She has a soul. She’s a human being.”

Apeirophobia is fear of everlasting life. UNIT 731 (2015) "A research unit of the Imperial Japanese Army during the second Sino-Japanese War and WW2, who conducted human experiments and committed horrible war crimes. After the war, the U.S. government assisted in a coverup of their activities in exchange for the medical data they acquired." "A Utah mother has received immense amounts of praise on social media for dressing up as a man to take her son to a "dads and doughnuts" event at his school... Kittrell said she became a single parent three years ago, and eventually asked her son if he wanted to take his grandfather to the event. Her son told her no and that he wanted to take her because she was his mother and father." An argument that the phrase "Dark Ages" is inappropriate. "Far from being a stagnant dark age, as the first half of the Medieval Period (500-1000 AD) certainly was, the period from 1000 to 1500 AD actually saw the most impressive flowering of scientific inquiry and discovery since the time of the ancient Greeks, far eclipsing the Roman and Hellenic Eras in every respect." The CIA has a Flickr account with a webpage with many albums of declassified maps. The Bay of Bengal is dying. "Many once-abundant species have all but disappeared.... Fish stocks have been decimated by methods that include cyanide poisoning. The region was once famous for its coral reefs; these have been ravaged by dynamite-fishing and climate-change induced bleaching. Yet the exploitation of these waters continues without check." "Queen Elizabeth had her own “Watchers,” a network of agents who intercepted letters, cracked codes, and captured possible dissenters to protect the crown in secret. The queen’s network of spies formed the original surveillance state in the U.K., and she started it for good reason... When spying abroad, Dee signed each private letter to Elizabeth with the insignia “007”—a moniker that was later borrowed by Ian Fleming, writer of James Bond." A mother saved her baby from a house fire by strapping him into a car seat and then dropping him from the second-story window.

"Soul-crushing facts about income inequality." Why you shouldn't play dodgeball with a softball player. "Technology can also allow people to access cars long after they’ve sold them, which is enough to leave any buyer uncomfortable." "Hungry hungry humans." A discussion thread suggested this was either a corporate team-building exercise, or a Mormon youth-group activity. This Finnish resort bills itself as "the world's most enchanting Arctic resort." I believe it. Look at the photos and the videos. "There have been rumblings regarding some sort of nuclear incident—or possibly incidents—in the Arctic over the last month. Multiple reports, some of them from official monitoring organizations, have reported iodine 131—a radioactive isotope often associated with nuclear fission—has been detected via air sampling stations throughout the region." A waitress physically drags an unwanted guest from a restaurant. (this) How to use a can of tuna to cook a dinner (clever, but I asked a friend who does long-distance hikes; he said he'd rather consume the oil than burn it) This week's gifs:

Trump signing an executive order.

"It was probably for the best that they didn't see it."

The Trump handshakes. A gallery of examples. Trudeau uses his left arm to defeat the pull.

A 10-million-gallon tank at the Georgia Aquarium.

A beautiful retracting driveway gate.

Which restroom to use???

This week's embedded images are winners of this year's Wellcome Image Awards, via Digg. Info re subject matter and photographer/artist at the link. from DIYS http://ift.tt/2mDKldd

#DIYS

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thederailedtrain · 8 years ago

Text

The Magic Shop: Lost And Found [Two]

Just like the last time the five Otherworlders had a conversation together, it started with a long silence. Albeit, the last time it was a result of shock and suspense, not permeable awkwardness. Even Gus was quiet - which, as far as Kira was concerned, was a pretty good barometer for how thick the tension was in the room. Instead of speaking, he just kept sending Kira looks that either read ‘get me out of here’ or ‘well, I’m not gonna do it’.

Kira was willing to bet on the latter. “Fine,” She said, and everyone’s eyes snapped to her. “Because you’re all literally impossible, I’ll go first.” The witch threw her hands up. “This is supposed to be a brainstorming session. Let’s brainstorm. For the love of god.”

By the look on Cedric’s face, he didn’t know whether to be amused, shocked or proud. “Well, alright then,” Cedric said, settling in against the shop counter. He ran a hand over his beard, which was beginning to look like it was in desperate need of a trim, before addressing the group once more. “The last time the five of us met, we had just learned the location where the Harbingers were keeping my grimoire thanks to intel from Toni.” He paused to indicate to the aforementioned Harbinger, who was currently pretending to inspect her nails. Her only acknowledgement was a small wave and then it was back to checking the polish. “That was nearly a week ago. And now that we’re all together again, we can finally come up with a solid plan to take that grimoire back once and for all.”

It was hard for Kira to believe that it had almost been a week since the solar eclipse. Classes and lectures were how she usually gaged the passage of time, but between her ever approaching thesis deadline and the threat of a damn near apocalyptic event looming overhead, Kira didn’t really have time for lectures. All she’d done recently had been train with Salazar at the shop and work on her dissertation when she got back to her apartment. The days kind of blurred together after that.

That night still seemed so clear in her mind. If she closed her eyes, she could still hear the stifling silence that followed in the wake of Toni’s admission.

“And about that grimoire...What if I knew where it was?”

Gus had been the first to break the silence. “You knew where it was this whole time?” He nearly yelled, jaw hanging open.

The only response Toni seemed willing to give at first was a roll of her eyes. “Of course I know where the grimoire is,” She made a face. “I’m the damn coven leader. Or, well, I used to be.”

“Toni did mention it would be heavily guarded,” Salazar put in, jogging Kira from her memories. There was a low ‘frickin obviously’ from Toni, but Salazar did a good job ignoring it. “So I doubt going in alone is a good idea. We should build up our forces.”

��Yeah, but she also mentioned that they had found the ritual to break the first seal and were planning to begin it within the month,” Kira frowned. It was a thought that still made her sick to her stomach every time it crossed her mind. She turned to the two Wardens of the group. “How long will it take to contact other Council members and ask them for help?”

They shared one of their conversational looks and seemed to decide Cedric would be the next one to speak. He sighed before saying, “Too long, unfortunately. Unless the threat has already appeared, then a Council member can’t act on a different Ward without a lengthy process. Since Salazar was here for Rafael, he was already in my Ward and we could exploit a loophole in the process.”

“What do you mean, ‘the threat isn’t imminent’?” Gus cried. “This city is crawling with Harbingers and your grimoire’s been missing for almost three months! In what universe is the threat not bloody imminent?”

“You’d be surprised by what constitutes imminent danger by Council standards,” Salazar muttered, his voice betraying dark memories. “But the problem isn’t so much whether they’re allowed to act on another Ward, but if they can leave their own unprotected.”

“And since Toni gave us a less than ideal time frame, we don’t have time to prepare a Council meeting and arrange for help,” Cedric finished for him. Sometimes, Kira swore it was like the two of them shared a brain. But, then again, she supposed that was what happened after several decades of friendship.

“And how about you stop talking about me like I’m not sitting right friggin here?” Toni cut in, glancing up from her nails.

Cedric met her gaze with a level stare. “Ah, Toni. So glad you could join our discussion,” He deadpanned.

Kira supposed Toni hadn’t been a coven leader for a while. Requesting help from the Warden to find her brother, then fighting against her own coven within the same day...that probably hadn't done her any favors. And fighting against them tonight might as well have solidified her status. Now that she was openly opposing them, she probably needed protecting. And if there was one thing the members of the Vestibulum Venenatis did, it was protect Otherworlders in need.

But if she hadn't been a Harbinger in a while…

“How do you know your intel is still accurate?” Kira cut through the next loaded silence. “What if they’ve changed the location since you left?”

“Unfortunately, as long as I’ve got this mark on my forehead, I also get to deal with several dozen idiots in my head twenty-four-seven,” Toni frowned, pushing back her bangs to show the intricately carved scar that rested there. “It doesn't take a lot of looking around to find either. It's in the same place it's always been.”

“Any chance you're going to tell us where that place is?” Cedric prompted when Toni didn't go on.

“Same place it's always been. Well, since we stole it of course,” Toni looked at each person like she was waiting for an answer. When they gave her none, she let out a hearty sigh. “It's being kept in Bethesda Castle.” Again, they were silent. “Come on, there’s no way you didn’t know that was, like, our Harbinger HQ...Really?”

The look on Gus’s face would’ve been hilarious in nearly every other situation. “What makes you think we knew that?” He cried, throwing his hands up. “If we knew, we probably would’ve attacked it already.”

Toni’s eye roll was so intense, it moved her entire head. “Like that time we all came crawling out of it like a clown car wasn’t obvious enough,” She raised her brows. “That fight during the storm? No?”

“Honestly, you guys have teleported en masse so many times, it always looks like you’re crawling out of a clown car,” Kira muttered.

“Okay, but what I said earlier still stands,” Gus appeared to be attempting Cedric’s signature single eyebrow raise and failing. “Now that we know where’s it’s being kept, why don’t we just storm the fortress? It gives them zero time to prepare and we have someone on our side who can tell us what’ll be waiting there.”

“Because,” Toni sighed like she was expecting this response. “They’re always prepared. There’s pretty much no point in attacking if they’re expecting you that far in advance.”

Desperate to break the staring contest brewing between Cedric and Toni, Kira cut in. “Uh, Toni, you mentioned something about there being defensive measurements around the castle,” Kira spoke up. That seemed to do the trick. And now Toni was more involved in the conversation than her nails, so that was a plus. “Mind elaborating?”

And because she couldn’t resist a good jab, Toni smirked at Cedric. “See, there’s a question I can answer,” She said. And before Cedric could say anything, Toni quickly skipped to her response. “And the answer is an ass load. Jasper’s one of those guys who thinks anything worth doing is worth overdoing. We’re talking seals and wards around just about everything, but those are a specialty of his, so no surprise there. Launching a head on assault would be one hell of a dumb idea, even with two neutral mages on our side.”

“What about teleporting into the castle and taking it from the inside?” Salazar tried, folding his arms over his chest. “You Harbingers can teleport and I’m fairly adept with my Herkimer diamond. We can probably get the five of us inside on one trip. Element of surprise.”

“Not really,” Toni gave him a look. “One of the wards Jasper placed on the castle blocks anyone without chaos magic from entering. If you do somehow manage to get in, then there are warning systems in the sigels of that ward that will alter all Harbingers of intruders. There’s a similar spell in place over all the others that will send up an alert if any of the Wards within it are altered.” She paused to let all the information sink in. “Yeah, exactly. Good luck breaking through all that on your own.”

There was something about what Toni had said that was itching at her curiosity and it was only then that Kira figured out what it was. “But why Bethesda Fountain?”

While the men all threw her confused looks, Toni’s lips curled up in a smirk. A smirk that she’d seen hundreds of times on the faces of every Harbinger. And a smirk that quickly fell when Toni suddenly remembered which side she’d picked for this upcoming battle. Then her face was just filled with fear and regret.

“You know the location of the nearest seal?” Toni asked.

Cedric’s mouth twitched. “Trick question,” He replied, eyeing Toni carefully. “The seals we used aren’t like the circle Rafael was using tonight. They’re much larger. We’re standing on one right now. The whole of Manhattan and most of the Lower Boroughs are one large seal.”

“Exactly,” Toni nodded, like she was anticipating Cedric’s temperamental answer. “And where’s the weakest spot in this seal?”

Kira watched as the realization flashed in Cedric’s eyes. “...Bethesda Castle.”

Silence had never been something Kira was uncomfortable with. It was just another fact of life, and Kira was content to wait in it while others were always so antsy to break it up with sound. She hated the stupid things people said to fill the emptiness when there was nothing wrong with emptiness in the first place.

But silences that followed profound revelations and bad news - those were the worst kind of emptiness. Kira didn’t want to fill them, so much as wipe them away.

“Okay, so we can't fight this on our own. And we can’t get anyone from outside Wards to help us either,” Kira spoke up, looking to each of the Otherworlders in turn. “Then who can we get from our own?”

The look Cedric gave her was at once proud and mildly disappointed. If Kira had to guess, the latter emotion was because she’d stolen his thunder. “That was the suggestion I was just about to make,” Cedric’s lips weren’t quite turned up in a smile, but it was closer than Kira had seen in too long. And bingo on that guess she’d made earlier. “I wanted to gather us here to discuss our options. If the Harbingers are planning to break the seal within the month, then we shouldn’t give them that kind of time. I say we plan the attack for ten days from now. Gives us enough time to contact everyone we think who might be willing to fight for us and let them prepare for the fight. How does that sound to everyone?”

Amidst a sea of nods, there was one concerned hum. “Um, no, bad idea. Unless you don’t want me there with you, I suppose,” Gus made a face. When no one seemed to get it, he added, “That’s a full moon, mate. Might be pushing it, but I can do two weeks?”

“No, that’s within our time frame and we need you there with us. Two weeks it is,” Cedric nodded, hand on his chin as he peered off in thought. “Actually, your pack would be a strong set of allies to have in this fight. Would you be able to reach out to them, Gus?”

The aforementioned werewolf shrugged. “I can try,” Gus said, though he didn’t sound too hopeful. “But Markas is...I can’t make any promises.”

“An inside contact is all we’ll need,” Cedric assured him. “Kira and I can reach out to regulars and other high-ranking covens we know. It’ll be faster if the two of us split the list and go out on our own. It’s a lot of responsibility, but how do you feel about it, Kira?”

He looked to her and Kira gave him her best confident nod. Still, she couldn’t shake the feeling that this was an attempt to spend less time together without pushing her away so obviously. Even if it was a solid plan.

“And I should head back to my Ward for a little while,” Salazar admitted. He’d been so silent, and his presence so invisible, Kira nearly forgot he was there. “Help Lix set up the temple for when the battle comes and let her step in as Warden while I’m gone.”

“Sounds like a blast,” Toni said. She stood, brushing imaginary dirt from her pants. “Have fun, you guys.”

Cedric was quick to hold out a hand to stop her. “Oh, no,” He shook his head. “I’m still not entirely sure I trust you and these next two weeks are going to be crucial.” The look on his face when he delivered the next line held the barest hint of smug satisfaction. “Our deal, remember? You’ll be accompanying me while I’m out.”

“Okay, but I’m pretty obviously a Harbinger,” Toni crossed her arms as she met Cedric’s stare. She just had to crane her neck up pretty high to do it. “Wouldn’t having me there hurt any attempt you make to gather allies?”

“On the contrary, I need you there to help me convince my clients that the threat is real,” Cedric replied easily. “Besides, having the Warden there will put them at ease. Time to see what screwing with the Harbingers is really about.”

Oh, Kira wasn’t sure if she wanted to be a fly on the wall for those conversations or if she didn’t even want to be in the same city. Probably the latter. Good thing this Ward encompassed whole three states.

“Alright, then I’m going with Kira,” Gus raised a hand. “What? That conversation with Markas will last all of five minutes - ten if I’m lucky- and we have fourteen days. I’m not twiddling my thumbs for this, I’m gonna do what I can.”

“There’s no one I’d rather have at my back,” Kira tried to give Gus her best encouraging smile, but she wasn’t so sure she could pull it off. So she settled for a punch to the bicep instead. It was probably a little rougher than she meant it, but Gus was tough. She was also quick to pick up the look of feigned hurt on Cedric’s face. However, when she raised a questioning brow, he relented.

The silence that settled over the shop this time was nice. Filled with something that was almost like budding camaraderie. And, maybe it was a little foolish, but hope.

“Alright, then. It’s settled,” Cedric nodded to each Otherworlder in turn and they all nodded back. Even Toni, albeit with some reluctance. “We have two weeks. Let’s build an army that will make the Harbingers regret ever thinking about taking that grimoire.”

#writing #my writing #katie writes sometimes #the magic shop #n: the magic shop

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