Walkabout investigators, late week 3

[leftbehindagain]

We have a slight problem, guys. You know that dragon-hunt meeting at the beginning of the week?

The dragon organised it. I've bumped into the kid who knows that actual person a couple times, and she said she spotted the difference right away. It's probably too late to do much with that information, but I'm almost certain it tried to focus people on the Magicians' Quarter on purpose.

I'd bet it's anywhere but there, and I bet it won't be there much in the next few weeks.

Comments

[creativefool]

Beat me to it. I'm gonna be careful.

Y'know ... That kid you were talkin' to? Maria, right?
Did she tell ya about the, uh, crazy animal summonin' stuff she's been doing? The things she's been pullin' off are... pretty damn advanced. I couldn't do it, not on that scale, and I've been workin' on that colour for a hell of a lot longer than she has... she can't've been studyin' it more than a week.

Kinda wonderin' how she learned that fast. And there's somethin' else that's making me wonder... I dunno. Either the kid's a hell of a natural or something's goin' on.

[leftbehindagain]

Good.

Now that you mention it... she was kind of weird this last time I talked to her. 'You can call me' instead of 'my name is,' for one thing, and she had some really strange observations about what green magic covers. Incidentally, it seems talking to the dead falls under that umbrella. [Congratulations, bro, you stumbled into something tied to skulls after all.]

What kind of 'something' were you thinking?

[creativefool]

She gave me the 'you can call me' thing, too. Didn't really think a lot of it at the time, but... Huh.

Could be some other powerful mages wanderin' around here or something. I dunno how powerful we're talkin' - [He's hesitant to outright think the word 'Illuminant', with his lack of understanding of the situation...] - but if that sorta magic can get into the hands of a kid, something's gotta be up.

Or ... eh, kinda a long shot, but ...Can anyone tell me if she's an Infiltrator? I kinda think I've seen her before, but I ... wanna be sure. 'Cause there's somethin' else that a nice friendly lady with a lion can mean.

[leftbehindagain]

...I didn't even think of the Trump angle, but I think that one's less likely. ROSE is the only one I can think of that went to this much trouble to blend into the setting.

And I think Maria-chan was at the Day of the Dead party.

[Maybe it's just wishful thinking on Naoki's part, considering how many times he's talked to Maria and how much she seems to like him... but still.]

[creativefool]

You got it. Strength card symbolism.

She looks familiar to me, too, which is why I ain't panickin' about the idea. But ... just check for marks if ya get a chance. In case we have got more ROSE type shit goin' down.

[fridgeninja]

I'm pretty sure she was in Liminal Space.

But from what I remember, ROSE was, too, so that might not mean anything.

[wholeheaded]

...did she say who has been teaching her? I remember her from the gate, said she was an apprentice of sorts to Beatrice the Yellow.

[ who is apparently the new dragon or something. he shouldn't have spent the last week with his nose in various books. ]

[creativefool]

[Hey, the right books are a good place to put a nose. He's learned that well enough recently.]

Y'know, I don't think I got a name apart from Beatrice's. Do ya know if apprentices often switch colours compared to their teachers?

[wholeheaded]

I didn't have much experience with apprentices - [ although he can recall the sound a crossbow bolt makes as it pierces on and stop let that go ] - but... not usually. You want to learn what your master can best teach, you don't work under a pastry chef if you're planning on curing ham for the rest of your life.

[creativefool]

Yeah, that makes sense. Sure, some of the stuff is the same, but once you start gettin' into the details...
So some green mage has given her a hell of a crash course, huh.

[willyousee]

Ah... Maria has chosen her color, has she? I had wondered where she had run off to. A slippery little girl.

[creativefool]

[...this doesn't sound quite right.]

Chose it in style, man. In 'let's fill a courtyard full of kittens' style.

[willyousee]

A courtyard full of kittens? [There isn't quite the sense of a laugh, but the pause certainly implies a grin, and the next sentence is somewhat quieter.] Well that will certainly please people for a time.

[Then louder.]

I need to find her. Where was she when you last saw her?

[creativefool]

Magicians' Quarter. Lookin' out for her myself.

THE MOST PRIVATE

[wholeheaded]

Alcuin.

[ enunciated. carefully. ]

Where are you?

PRIVATE

[willyousee]

[Slight pause.] Out searching for Maria. She vanished while under my care.

[wholeheaded]

Uh huh. [ well. ] I'd like to help you. I think we both should be keeping an eye on her.

[ he remembers Green. he remembers Green and Yellow.]

[comebewe]

What sort of something?

[he thinks he's already gotten a pretty good idea from talking to her, but that doesn't mean he doesn't want to see what other people might say about it]

Also, you actually use their weird 'Let's categorise all magic according to colour' system?

[creativefool]

There're some hella powerful mages around here. The ones I've heard anythin' about, they call 'em 'Illuminants', but there could be others... hell, I don't know. Kid might be involved with somethin' like that, somethin' like them.

And it ain't that I stick a colour on all magic. I've got different sorts and powers that don't fit their scheme. It'd be pointless. But for magic around here that plays by their rules, yeah, I do - every world's different where that shit's concerned. I ain't ever... huh, gonna throw a fireball usin' the local spells, but it doesn't mean that when I use the fire attack spells I have they're 'red' or anythin'.

[comebewe]

What exactly are Illuminants?

Yes, but it's not your magic, is it? It's from a whole different world where the rules are different. We're surprised that you are actually able to use it.

[creativefool]

I don't know that well. Just that they were damn powerful and involved in stuff last time the Travellers came through here. Coupla folks infiltrated as 'em, too.

And... Eh, took me a while to learn, but I had a good teacher for the first coupla spells and I ain't the sorta guy to give up.

[comebewe]

So...basically now we can't trust anyone trying to kill the dragon to not be the dragon? Wonderful.

[leftbehindagain]

Well, I think it's obvious from events so far that the dragon is in fact a giant troll - in the Internet sense - and will make itself blindingly obvious before too long, no matter whose face it's using.

[comebewe]

We knew there was a reason we never liked internet trolls.

And do we even know anything about dragons? Dragons in this world, I mean. Because I have definitely never head of ones that run around pretending to be human in mine.

[leftbehindagain]

A little. I've been trying to find out more, but getting into the Magicians' Quarter with no magic to speak of has been tricky. [He thinks he's almost there, though, and if Maria-chan's sudden nosedive into green magic isn't worrisome for Trump Reasons, she might be able to give him more backup than she could have previously.]