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Post by Gavin Graves on Dec 7, 2021 19:39:48 GMT -8
It was not a frequent occurrence for Gavin to have the chance to peruse the wares of the illicitly obtained rare books market. He had occasion once before. Despite all desire to possess the rare tome, he had quickly run into the problem that faced many such seekers as he. He did not have the necessary funds to meet the broker and client's considerable demands. Certainly not on a trail guide's income. That was then.
This time he knew what to expect in coming to the table, though. He had made a loose connection with a few consultants in the niche area and made some calls. This time he would circumvent the usual run around and excess of vetting at each step and handoff in the path to reach the seller or their broker. This time he paid for a go between to vouch for him and leaned on his previous experience winding his way through the network using the generous monetary contribution by Henley. The pair had a time crunch on their hands and this effort needed to be swift.
This type of business, though criminal in nature, when done through professionals did not lead to dreary alleyways or abandoned warehouses with a package wrapped in butcher's paper exchanged for bundles of money in gym bag like the clichés depicted in movies. The pair of Lost and their consultant were taken by blackout tinted car and driven at length in a circuitous pattern. Their phones had been placed in a small case that a knowing person would recognize as a Faraday Cage. Their guide took a moment to reassure them that these were all standard precautions, and told them not to worry. The cage was a simple metal box that encompassed a latticework of copper that would severely disrupt any signals from going in or out of the box. No calls, no texts, no GPS would get through the handy precaution. It had been nearly twenty minutes of seemingly random turns more when the vehicle took a final shift onto a downward slope before the telltale sound of wheels rolling over steel water drainage grates that were usually present at the entrances to underground parking areas told them they had arrived.
Led from the vehicle to an elevator by the driver. He waited with them until the quiet whir ended with a ding and the doors opening. The elevator would have been spacious if not for the presence of two men in suits with serious demeanors crowding up the space. The quality of their garb and the size of their shoulders made their purpose here immediately apparent. They were the muscle. After the trio filtered into the elevator, one of the intimidating men hit the '8' button. The doors closed leaving the driver behind and the transport glided into motion. This was not a cheap operation and whomever was running it wanted to make sure the clients knew it too.
They were led to a well appointed executive styled room. More opulence was present here than was called for on the eighth story in a building with 32 floors. This side affair of theirs was definitely how they punched above their weight in the business world.
The man who sat in the chair with the overly tall leather back was clearly middle management material at best, but he'd found a way to eek out a better life for himself all the same. The weaselly man was going to be part of business tonight that stood a chance to make a real difference in the world whether he knew it or not. The Beast didn't begrudge him his creature comforts, but he was taking precious time to make himself seem more important than he really was in the grand scheme of things. The man set up to posture about how he was a big deal and that they were lucky to be given the opportunity to bid on such a rare find.
Henley was having none of it and pressed him straight into business. Gavin had soon demanded access to the tome to verify its authenticity and quickly assess its usefulness to their purposes.
The Claviculara Salomonis: King Solomon's Key--The Greater Key of Solomon--was on the table in front of him! If it was the real thing, this was a true Grimoire. Even to academic understanding, the text was known as a book of spells. The 'modern' versions of it dated back to the 14th century when during the Italian Renaissance, works of late antiquity were curated into the tome here today. The Lemegeton, a later work inspired by the Claviculara Salomonis, held much of the same information that it divided across five books. The trouble with the much more readily available Lemegeton collection, was in the failure to directly transcribe many of the seals and frequently incorrect transcription. It would take much more effort to pull what they needed out of the more common 'Lesser Key of Solomon.' Though the Lemegeton did have some interesting additions that were not present in 'The Greater Key.' In particular, the Ars Notoria where it outlined how a sorcerer might acquire an Eidetic Memory.
A rush of whispers from the Razorhand's Autumn Mantle filled his mind as he paged through the tome. It was authentic and the way it resonated with the rustling leaves and promised knowledge it was bound to be of great assistance to their collective task. He felt a kind of power holding his hand over the cover of the book. It was a true occult rarity. It been in a collection or a museum somewhere acting as a prize piece to display or to start a conversation. Soon he was going to use it for a higher purpose than vanity.
"It's good." Gavin said flatly, holding back his excitement so as to not make things difficult for Henley and the consultant to get a bargain.
The Terrible set to grinding the man's bones to make his supper, in a manner of speaking. He worked the deal until the broker wouldn't move. The consultant was impressed. He hadn't seen a client work this guy over this hard before.
The deal struck and the men paid, the Lost set off to engage the Greater Key of Solomon to work the protections necessary to stymy the spreading curse from a horror of Arcadia.
Gavin had requisitioned a number of supporting and translation works surrounding academic examination of the the book. Many of them were in electronic form accessible through Anthony's College Library and the databases it licensed. They were ready to start the great effort, as wild and surreal as it was.
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Post by Henley on Dec 7, 2021 21:34:10 GMT -8
Maybe he was born with it. Maybe it was the twisting of Fate in their favor, or the Ogre blood running through his veins. Or maybe, Henley was just plain tired of She-of-the-Sanctuary's bullshit threatening his life. He'd worked the bargain hard as he could, and while the Greater Key of Solomon was fucking expensive, he had plenty in the bank to make it happen. Blessings of the Crown had brought them forward, ten minutes of pure magic driving their cause. A briefcase full of money changed hands for the book, which Henley fully intended to put on his library as a key resource for the future. But for right now? That bad boy was in some sharp hands.
"All right. Let's get this fuckin' meme made. We've got time constraints. Go start working on the shit you know already. I'll read that thing like a computer and direct you to key points, which you can analyze from there."
Out came the post-it notes and tabs. Thirty minutes later, he'd gone through the entire book. It was brimming with relevant tabs, and he'd even drafted a little index of what the key points were. He flashed a grin. No need to explain how he got that far, that fast. Gavin was an occultist. He knew the myths.
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Post by Gavin Graves on Dec 8, 2021 16:15:55 GMT -8
With the Ogre in the next room paging through the grimoire Gavin was left to sort through the supporting materials he thought might be of some use with the project. Anthony had left him his laptop with the library databases logged in under his profile. Left alone paging through all the pdfs the Beast felt his mind slipping toward a calm inner space. He had just acquired one of the rare works in his area of focus. It would have been very simple to feel accomplished with that act alone. There were just too many things going on and he needed to focus on the work in front of him. Lives were on the line and people were depending on him. "La, la, la, la, doo, dee do dee dee," he broke up the pleasant tune that started to play in his head with deliberate discord before deciding to read out loud for a while to stay on track while he lined up the elements that were likely needed. When Henley was finished with his part, the Drowner gave him a quizzical look before passing off the tabbed up tome. "Give no ear to the bird's song," the occultist reminded himself and the room without putting it in context while reading from the excerpt about Phenex, a Marquis of Hell. There was no follow up on his non-sequitur. It was time to get to work and the Beast was already obsessively locked onto the prized work and the quest at hand. He already had a concept in mind approaching the problem from what he'd already seen. The first leg of the research was very productive in drawing up the component symbols that would make good contributions to undoing the curse and containing its effects: The magical seals that bind the power of each Phenex and Amducias were obvious Goetic sigils to be included in the final product. Binding their individual or combined power would not by itself do anything they needed. The seals merely forced them to be receptive to other commands and occult actions. On their own it would be like saying their names in a commanding tone and then not saying anything meaningful afterward. It was necessary to include symbols that held power over the alchemical elements he wanted to control. Both those that would identify them and the properties he desired as well as those that might help them interact in the way he had intended. The next while was spent learning the syntax of the Sigils and winnowing his list down to the alchemic symbols for 'Soul,' 'Take' and 'Iron.' He had a little surprise in mind for She-of-the-Sanctuary. Additionally he set aside numerous variations of the Seal of Solomon for inclusion. Just which ones he would sort out as he went. The Unicursal Hexagram he included because of its occult and mathematical association within infinity and love. Love being directly in opposition of the spirit of cursing, it seemed apropos. He had chewed through a third of a ream of Anthony's paper printing off images of the sigils he was working with. Having the symbols he intended to integrate was one thing. Combining the lot of them together to create a unique spell designed to bespoke counter a pernicious curse was a whole other thing. Each symbol needed to be maintained in its own right while simultaneously being made to interact across the patterns of other symbols in a way that took power away from where he wanted and moved it to where he did want it. Occasionally a breeze from the open window would flip the open tome to a page that would spark an idea, a gift from the Wyrd and a blessing from Autumn all in one subtle turn guiding his effort. From the blank canvas he drew a large simple Seal of Solomon. It looked like the Star of David enclosed in a circle with a dot between each of the points of the stars within the circle. The star held significant meaning. Each point held its own attachments. The star also allowed the marrying of the two sets of symbol as many of the alchemical symbols had been derived from the star in the first place. A simple point-up equilateral triangle meant fire in both sets for example. There were many crossovers like it. He intended to draw on that particular property directly. It would take some figuring to get that to pop the way he wanted though. Inside the upper most point of the star, he placed the paper cutout of the Seal of Phenex in its most natural position, the space that meant 'Air.' In the original curse, Phenex and Amducias were in direct communion. They needed to be separated and contained in their own seals. He toyed with placing it in each of the other star points as well as the center and thought through the formulation that would be created with each. He tentatively settled on the bottom point, which meant 'Earth.' These two positions were diametrically opposite and would make them the easiest to separate with other actions, the Razorhand figured. It was then possible to start working out how he might seal off and manipulate the individual components of the curse. The ideas simply flowed with ease from there. He was in an uncommon fit of productivity, even for him. It jumped out at him that he didn't have to stick only to the Seals of Goetia to accomplish his task. Flipping through the book in whole segments he quickly landed in the area of Enochian Seals. The text was supposedly of a divine origin, but the Catholic Church had maligned it as unholy demonology due to the Goetia. It also held command over angelic power. Sifting through the the available seals and crosschecking their meaning and application he settled on the Seal of the Seven. He was going to draw on similar magic that reportedly sealed Hell itself away to help restrain the curse and protect the souls from Phenex's influence. The symbol was adjusted with the alchemical sigil for soul to clearly indicate what it was to protect. That element was positioned in the lower right point of the star where it would parallel the bastardized symbols of the curse. On the mirrored position where the curse would have held the power to take the soul. He left the 'Take' from the curse intact and placed it in a relationship with the alchemical sigil for 'Iron.' The equilateral point-up triangle within the star comprised of the center, the lower right symbol of protection for the soul, the lower left combination symbol for 'Take' and 'Iron' and, Phenex sealed in the point for Air. This was meant to place the relationship of all three points together to draw on the property of fire. He wanted any attempt to draw power from people protected by this symbol to burn the Horror in the crucible of Iron, while Amducias' influence, the spreading of the curse through voice, would be buried within the earth where no one could hear it. A white hot flash of genius came to the Beast. He was wondering how he could integrate a second hexagonal element into the work without muddying the meaning and losing the power or corrupting it altogether. It had finally come to him. The Unicursal Hexagram would fit perfectly within the Star of David and convey exactly the meaning he wanted it to. The cursed who instead of lamenting or blaming the person who passed on the curse could partake in forgiving the curser, a loving act, and the meant 'infinity' and 'love' could potentially rise to overcome even the most thoroughly embroiled curser. At the center of the star, he placed the Secret Seal of Solomon to bind all the magics between the Seals with the magical Authority in which they were written. Iron and brass were Solomon's metals used in his seals, so their colours were present to call on the magic with as much fervor as the Razorhand could muster. "It's done. This will do some work. We just need to get people to use it, say your phrase while calling people to forgive them and pass it all on intact to the next person." Gavin was clearly proud of what he'd made. He was practically beaming with it, but uncertainty crept in shortly after when he wondered how laypeople were going to effectively use it. "Maybe a video to link around so it doesn't get muddled and they can just follow along, say the words and forgive the person who cursed them?" he was unclear whether he was asking for input or just further engaging his mania.
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Post by Icarus on Dec 11, 2021 23:32:07 GMT -8
Tony was woken up by Henley blowing up his phone, instructing him to meet him outside the campus library to be picked up for another meeting of the Esoteric. Meanwhile, Gavin may have used the angle that he was responsible for Grendel's execution to get a quick response to his ring to the Knight of the Dying Light. The Fairest didn't sound stoked as his Curse was leaned on to hold a meeting last minute at two in the morning, but curiosity got the better of the warlock as Scorpio's vassal dangled cutting edge research into binding aspects of the Fae.
The Incubus had his patio lit, dressed in workout attire as he stared blearily at Gavin's pile of notes, which the Razorhand eagerly strewn across the generous black-granite counter that ringed around the fire table. Icarus didn't even bother to hide that he had been smoking with the Beast's senses glittering excitedly in the shadows, lighting up a new joint as he reconciled that he wouldn't be going to bed anytime soon.
Henley and Tony arrived just as Icarus realized he was missing he glasses, arranging them over his dreadfully beautiful fae-mien while asking a second time how in the world Graves had managed to get his hands on the fucking Claviculara Salomonis of all things. He seemed in high spirits for the time being, if bewildered as he giggled over the Beast's retelling and shook his head. He was so engrossed that the Ogre's Mantle announcing his arrival with a mundie in tow didn't immediately pull him from the roar of Autumn's insight. Tony blanched: it was a lot to take in at once. The heraldry of both Autumns hit the student square in his traumatic insecurities, and it was hard to choose whether to gawk at Gavin's serrated limbs that ignited a primal instinct to bail, or the fact that he was momentarily questioning his preferences with Dark Lord Sauron dressed as a jock-nerd assessing DIY Exorcism and getting stoned.
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Post by Henley on Dec 12, 2021 18:08:17 GMT -8
tony, wake up
it's 0200 hours and the oh stands for OH MY GOD ITS EARLY
rise and shine, it's time to do some magical shit tony
bring coffee, our boy icarus is gonna be grumpy
we're interrupting his beauty slep________ Unlike Icarus and Tony, who were punks who were just not committed enough to nightlife and solving magical problems using weird arcane sigils and a Razorhand's mad insight, Henley looked like a million bucks. He'd thrown on something custom and crimson, dressing up for the occasion. This was a Knight he was meeting with, even if it was a mad dash, and not just any Knight -- the man himself. Icarus. Spring blasted forth from his pores even as Autumn tried to assert its dominance. Whatever the miserable fuck thought, the season of Desire had its claws in him. They'd get along just fine. He drove the Benz that night, an electric vehicle with great torque and cool screens across the dash. The last song on arrival was Blinding Lights by the Weeknd: a perfect tune for a late night drive when they were running out of time. Pleasantries didn't last long. The Knight's time was valuable and he was probably hella tired. Instead, Henley focused on demonstrating his value to the whole thing and integrating Anthony so that the kid would feel more comfortable. Icarus was the coolest Autumn Knight, but that Mantle was a tough one to handle. When it came to the question of how they'd got the Key, Henley just grinned. "Dirty deeds, done not-so-dirt-cheap is how it was acquired. Care to share? It has been a night. My man, Mr. Cartwright, holds a Bargain with me and is closely associated with Spring Court. We'd like to make sure he's safe from this thing, pronto."He gestured to the weed with a cheeky grin. Puff, puff, pass to the kid. Anthony was going to need it.
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Post by Gavin Graves on Dec 13, 2021 17:18:42 GMT -8
Gavin really didn't want to lean on the tenuous working connection he held with the Knight of Dying Light, but it was at Henley's insistence that he pushed passed his discomfort after Icarus ignored the more polite approaches.
His attention was keenly placed on his fellow Autumn's every twitch and reaction. It was like a Type-A personality was having their prized report judged in front of them. The Beast was put at ease with the impression made on the Incubus by having gone as close to 'Occult source code' as could be managed using mortal means, with a great deal of help. Wearing his apology for the time of night in his eyebrows, and his pride in his expectant smirk, he waited. The waiting seemed more like a cat waiting to pounce than comfortable relaxation. He showed no interest in the joint being passed around.
Only when offered to partake did he become more broadly aware of the additional people and shake off his reverie, such was his focus in that room.
"Is this Mr. Cartwright?" though looking at Tony, the question had reach enough to hit Henley's ears in case the young man was himself locked in his own world. Getting a nod, Gavin knocked his own two fists together indicating a fist bump gesture before carefully making the offer. "I'm Gavin."
This was probably not the most ideal circumstances for Tony to be meeting the others, but for Gavin it was probably about as good a first impression as he could make as a scary magic-man.
Wits now about him, he recounted the tale again for the new audience winding its way through the tangled machinery of the underworld, shady contractors, intimidation games, and rare stolen goods brokers all made to turn with the correct application of the right kind of grease and pressure. This time the machine did not require any percussive maintenance.
"I put a little surprise in the meme too. Trying to collect on the curse should prove extremely painful. It does however mean that only humans can use it. Also that's assuming I did it right. It's my first time trying to make a Faerie horror's magic backfire using ancient esoterica." He'd only just learned the niche lore that was central to the work as a consequence of the last time he visited the Icarus' mansion. At the very least the Knight would know the bird had made good use of what was exchanged and validated the risk taken previously with Grendel.
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Post by Icarus on Dec 14, 2021 16:10:42 GMT -8
Icarus chummed easily enough with the Spring, complimenting the outfit and cracking a joke about his own state of undress. Tony was a statue the whole time, giving Gavin his fist bump and managing to only stare at the claws as they came close to his skin. The return of the greeting bubbled out a few seconds later, like he was lagging. The joint was smoked mechanically while the Ogre he was tied to gave him a minute to acclimate, passing it back to Icarus while looking everywhere but directly at the Fairest. He had seen Ivory for a brief moment while they were in a heated argument, and Aello when she was comfortable enough to float the truth about herself, but both didn't have the same punch to his psyche as the Autumn Knight. Even Gavin for his terrifying nature, or Henley's innate allure as a Nix hit the same zone of the uncanny—Icarus set his teeth on edge and spiked his adrenaline that something was wrong, but irresistible. It was being pulled off a cliff.
The Magistrate seemed to understand the dynamic just fine, acknowledging Tony in the most mundane way he could manage. After three rounds of passing and storytelling, he give him the roach to finish off, and an opening to sit at the fire table and away from the chattering Fae. "I think this one's Ice Cream Cake? It should help in a couple of minutes," he said, turning back to Gavin's excited preening.
The fire flared and died as the shadows sharpened around the Autumn's features, welcoming the Season's mad hubris as he silently mouthed the pattern the Beast was outlining. The pearlescent sheen to his hollow eyes flashed with light behind it, rolling from the pair to the notes at the table. "The direction you trace it needs to be in reverse, I think...when evoking the point of air when it comes to communication. They can't share it, they will have to draw it themselves and follow the-" he traced the lines in the air, looking distracted himself as he focused on the Pattern, "I'm going to add some things in the margins of the seals. It's going to be difficult for the average person to pull off, so I would have a slow art-based tutorial. Make it big, so they won't fuck up the details. Have the person who cursed them light candles at the points counterclockwise and smudge as the receiver forgives them. They should seal a blood pact with a blade in an pact of brotherhood and dust their hands with a ground iron tablet beforehand."
He cocked an eyebrow at Tony, "This could get you expelled if you're caught. You'll have to be really discrete. Your hand is going to scar, too. Think, like, the smallpox vaccine?"
Tony chuckles to himself, giving the Fairest a sardonic thumbs up. It was hard to tell whether he was stressed and just accepting this nonsense or already high as a kite.
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Post by Henley on Dec 14, 2021 22:58:31 GMT -8
The comment from the Knight about getting expelled earned a silent smile from Henley, who resisted the urge to chuckle. After all, they were dealing with a potential mass taking of people from their world. What was a little expulsion between friends, if that was what it took to stay alive and free from the Fae?
"Thanks for the weed, Sir Icarus. And the help."
It would really help.
He had paid close attention as the drawing was done, seeing what had been added, the order Icarus set it in. An art based tutorial? That was something they could do. He was shit at drawing, but he was pretty damn good at explaining things -- and good artists weren't actually all that expensive. Especially when they were students.
"Tony. You know any excellent art students who would draw this on a time lapse with the camera on their hand for anonymity, and sign a non-disclosure agreement to keep their mouths shut about it for a thousand bucks?"
He paused, then grinned, his eyes narrowed from being high as balls.
"A slow, art-based tutorial that fucks my Keeper over and saves a bunch of lives. That's hilarious, boys. I fuckin' love this shit. Who ever said Autumn couldn't be a good time? Oh. Oh. Gavin. Tony's got a magical aura. You wanna check that out? I figured it might just be the marks of our Bargain, but it's good to make sure, right?"
He took another toke and grinned.
"Use the GoldenEye, Gavin. You know. Like the Bond movie."
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Post by Krakenbox on Dec 17, 2021 15:15:05 GMT -8
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Post by Gavin Graves on Dec 17, 2021 23:38:44 GMT -8
Gavin's notepad came out immediately when Icarus began giving directions for how to best utilize his creation. It wouldn't do to have created a weapon if those that had to wield it could not recreate it effectively: the drawing order, the adjusted seals, counter-clockwise candle lighting, ground up iron supplements, and knives & blood pacts. This was going to be a tough sell even with the perfect weapon in hand. He didn't question any of the directions until after they were recorded.
"So we can put the right stresses into the tutorial, why are these things important?" Gavin didn't rightly know or he would have added them himself, and this was an opportunity to expand his knowledge. The Knight had just added to the Beast's work without any expensive reference materials while high on the deck of his mansion. It was like he had just done advanced calculus in his head.
When Henley suggested he examine Tony with his eye, it had dawned on him he had just wildly run down the path of esoteric magic without so much as a second guess. He had not even asked if the Ogre had kenned to see if there was magic about him. Gavin had been given a picture and that was that. They had just spent the night following up on Gavin's first thought as if it were the only possible answer! Hubris. Pure hubris. Many lives were presumed to be on the line.
"Yeah, good idea. I'm going to need to know what I can do to pay The Dollmaker back though, yeah? I don't want this to be an ever growing and looming debt that bites me in the ass." Most businesses like referrals he figured, but it was a Hob and they could be quite esoteric in their requirements.
"Tony, let me get a look at you. Nate wants me to examine the magic signatures that linger on you. Might get a good look at the curse itself this way. When you're ready. You won't feel anything from it other than me looking at you like I'm staring through you." Gavin asked for the lighter and proceeded to burn a couple owl feathers before shadowing his eyelids with the ashes while the young man prepared himself to add yet more strangeness to the rapidly growing collection.
"Do we know anyone who could write up a Gambit for this effort?" The Beast had little faith the average human was going to fare well with the intricacies of drawing occult sigils without making a mess. It was probably wishful thinking, but it had worked wonders in the past. "Otherwise, I might need to play masked assistant for a few of Tony's friends and hope for the best with the rest. You know, after we test it on a smaller scale first." The Autumn ethics commissioner was right there, even if Gavin was feeling very confident about his work, that Mantle had done its work.
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Post by Anthony Cartwright on Dec 19, 2021 22:30:38 GMT -8
As Henley asked about knowing other students, he pursed his lips as he grasped at his drifting memory, "Yeah. Yeah, I totally do," he chuckled, "A lot of the students in arts and film..."
He blinked a few times as Gavin loomed, smile faltering as the orange eye shimmered and contracted, "Uhm-" A red light blinked in the middle of Tony's face, spreading like roots as the sigil that Gavin had been sent earlier flashed beneath his flesh.
The light glowed gold as talons scraped and batted at foreseen dangers.
"Yeah, sure." Gavin had gotten a little close, attention of the Eye boiling in the pit of his stomach.
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Post by Icarus on Dec 19, 2021 22:43:28 GMT -8
Icarus looked a little put out when Gavin asked for a thorough explanation, "Honestly, knowing ritual based tales from the Internet, the vagueness often adds to the mystique."
The Incubus rubbed his eyes, chuckling with pearlescent teeth, "When you overexplain these things, people will just think you're mentally disturbed."
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Post by Henley on Dec 19, 2021 23:28:16 GMT -8
"I don't think it needs to be that complicated. We can take pictures of the whole, then the sections in order that they need to duplicate it, and label the photographs with numbers of the order in which the items need to be drawn. No big deal. They'll benefit from my fate-twisting in our favor, too." He shrugged, folding his hands into his pockets. "I don't think it's really going to be all that tough for any artist with any experience. Plus, it lets me give someone a scholarship. And that's a tax break, my man." It also didn't require him to reveal his Bargain to additional people. That was important.
Henley swayed a bit and grinned.
"Holy fuck, Icarus. That's the good stuff."
Blink. His eyes were glazed, distant.
"I think we're good for tonight, work-wise. Did we want to meet up for an early dinner tomorrow, give us all some time to sleep and Anthony some time to run down the chain? I can help with the online digging in the early afternoon, if you give me access to your account details. I won't make stupid posts or anything."
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Post by Gavin Graves on Dec 20, 2021 0:06:37 GMT -8
"Give me some credit, please." The Beast shrugged off the judgement, "I wasn't going to explain it on camera. I know how crazy it all sounds. It was going to be more along the lines of 'if you draw anything within this circle incorrectly' ..." He taps one of the seals to bind the demons with a talon. " ... you must stop erase everything within the circle and then proceed again. That sort of thing."
He turned his attention back to Anthony, parsing what he was observing. "Yeah, some of the elements I discerned from the curses design itself are apparent in the wild. He's got it and it will for certain be held back by perpetual pain. It calls on the cursed into a lifelong debt of servitude, which it clearly is meant to force the curse to be propagated." This was all expected. Gavin had known all this simply from his examination of the curse iconography.
Pouring through what he'd already seen a few more times he teased out a second phenomenon pulsing behind the prominent curse. "There is also a second possibly unrelated effect here. Its loophole is to prick one's finger and draw a drop of blood and it is somehow in conjunction with an Oath to protect him from harm." The Beast looked over to Henley to check in with a raised eyebrow as if to say 'one of yours?'
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Post by Henley on Dec 24, 2021 18:40:41 GMT -8
"Well. That means you were right. Nicely done." Henley grinned as he complimented the Beast for figuring out the spell based on mortal symbology alone so adeptly. The second piece, though -- that got a little grunt from him and a shrug.
"Fate-twisting of the positive variety. Not mine, though. Mine is tied to overcoming this particular issue, not general safety. Fate's tricky. I didn't want to go overbroad. It just means another one of us cares about protecting him. Probably Ivory or the Squire of Scales or someone they reached out to make sure he was kept safe." That made sense. There were plenty of Fairests fucking about in Las Vegas. If the Dragon couldn't do it herself, someone else surely could. Looking to Tony, he smiled gently. "It might seem like a lot, my man. But the fact that people are looking out for you must make this a bit less scary, hey?"
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