Animal shelter [forward-dated to Saturday, OTA]

[t_farnon]

The day of the adoption clinic began with rain. Tristan sprinted through the streets of the village, crossing the quick path between hotel and animal shelter with his overcoat held over his head. If this were a proper magic village, he thought, there'd be free umbrellas for all and he wouldn't have had to ruin his only coat. Perhaps the skies would

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[wizard_p_i]

Harry dropped by on his lunch hour as well, a cat perched on the shoulder of his three-piece suit. When he sat down, she leapt into his lap and nuzzled his hand until he began stroking her and scritching her under the chin. Then she commenced purring like a furnace.

[ideal_guardian]

The room was crowded enough to make sitting next to someone inevitable, but Bruce suspected Nanook of trying to socialize him as there were quite a few seats fairly isolated from everyone else.

As Bruce settled Nanook stared curiously at the little purring kitten. He'd worked with a few not-dogs before. He'd been taught that he wasn't allowed to chase a not-dog unless he was given permission, and this not-dog seemed to be keeping it's ward calm. So Nanook just stared and laid his head in his ward's lap.

[wizard_p_i]

Lucy didn't mind dogs. She'd been around other animals since she was a kitten, and had long since decided that animals not like her (and not humans, obviously) were merely another form of cat.

She sniffed at this one and his human experimentally. They smelled acceptable. She would not object to associating with them, or to her human doing so. "Mrrowr?"

"Lucy," her human reprimanded her, "don't bother the nice man and his dog."

Lucy gave him a haughty look. As if she, a cat, could bother anyone! "Ffttt!" she said, hoping that he understood that that was a very rude word.

"Gesundheit," her human said to her, evidently thinking that she was sneezing. Then he turned to the dog's human. "Nice dog. What's his name?"

[ideal_guardian]

Nanook wondered why the other human couldn't understand the rude things his not-dog was saying to him. But then his ward wasn't the most perceptive sometimes either. "Auuu."

Bruce smiled out of habit. "Nanook." He nodded at the other man's cat. "Lucy I presume?"

[wizard_p_i]

"Yeah. Her first visit to the vet."

Lucy settled back into her human's lap, taking care to nudge his hand. He needed to begin petting her again.

Harry studied the man. No, not someone he recognized. As he started stroking Lucy once more, he spoke. "Haven't seen you before. How long have you been here?"

After all, just because the man was unfamiliar, that didn't mean that he hadn't been around for a while. It was possible to live in the same town for ages and not meet people. Theoretically.

[ideal_guardian]

Bruce nodded. "Not Nanooks. I'm afraid a temporary loan has become rather prolonged" He scratched Nanook behind the ears, just making sure that the dog knew Bruce didn't mind.

"A few weeks. You?"

The man was unfamiliar. Attractive and nicely put together. Not a buisnessman though, he carried himself with to much passsive strength to be a buisnessman.

[wizard_p_i]

Harry did a rapid calculation in his head. "It'll be a year and eight months on October second."

[ideal_guardian]

"That sucks." He was nearly going insane having been stuck here for a bit over a month.

"Bruce by the way. Bruce Wayne." He held out a hand to the other man.

[wizard_p_i]

It was a good thing that Harry had heard about Bruce from Thomas. The name didn't shock him.

"Harry," he said, shaking Bruce's hand. "Harry Dresden.

"So," he inquired curiously, "what do you do back home, Bruce?"

The comics had never been particularly specific about what owning Wayne Enterprises involved. He wasn't even sure what Wayne Enterprises did.

[OOC: Harry knows nothing about Christian Bale-Batman and a whole lot about DC comics-Batman. Don't worry. He won't canon puncture the man.}

[ideal_guardian]

"Pleasure.

"CEO of Wayne Enterprises, we pioneer advanced technologies. Mostly industrial but we do some development for the military too." Standard buisness patter. He had it down to a T. "Nothing terribly exciting I'm afraid. You?"

((ooc: bruce is completely canon-puncturably so harry doesns't have to be over-cautious. the joker already got a start on that ;))

[wizard_p_i]

Harry had this one down too. "I'm a professional wizard. And no, I'm not a stage magician. I don't do tricks, I don't do children's parties and I don't make love potions." Not for clients, anyway. To appease my spectral father...yes.

"I do magic. I find lost items and lost people, I do paranormal investigations and I consult with the police about weird crimes." He grinned. "And I have no objection to demonstrating."

[ideal_guardian]

A week ago Bruce would have thought that this was another nutcase. Seeing a man turn someone into stone tended to have a jarring affect on what accepted as reality though.

The man was offering to demonstrate some magic though. If it really was real, Bruce was still trying to convince himself it was, well...it wasn't something to pass up. "I can take your word for it." He smiled a bit in response. "It is magic though. A demonstration would be...appreciated."

[wizard_p_i]

"Okay," Harry said agreeably. He held out one hand and murmured, "Fuego!"

A large ball of blue-white fire kindled in his hand. He concentrated on it, willing it to float over to Bruce.

"Don't touch it," he warned as the blazing hot fireball drew close to the other man, then stopped. "Sam Carter did and she got burned. Not much, and I did heal her, but still."

[ideal_guardian]

Bruce's breath escaped in a soft "Oh!" as he watched the ball of swirling flame. He could feel the heat against his skin and couldn't help smiling a bit in wonder.

He rolled his eyes at the wizard's comment. What kind of moron stuck their hand in something that was supposed to be a ball of fire?

It took him several moments to slide his normal mask back into place. "That's very impressive Mr. Dresden." He took his eyes away from the fireball to look at the other man. "What more can you do?" So he was a bit curious. A lot curious. He'd only found out a week ago that you could turn living men into stone.

[wizard_p_i]

Harry smiled. Pure wonder at the sight of magic was always good. And besides...how often did you get to impress Batman?He banished the fireball with a murmured word, then answered Bruce's question. "Oh, a lot of things. More fire spells. Wind spells--I won't do those in here, because they're rather hard to control. And the doctor might object to a whirlwind taking out his hospital. Earth spells...like spikes of earth. Very useful against monsters. Shield charms and protection spells. Spells involving gravity. Potions of all kinds." You get the idea

[ideal_guardian]

Bruce's expression hardened. "Having someone turned to stone infront of you tends to have that affect on one's belief." He smiled plastically. "And sometimes the theater is closer to the truth that we'd like to believe. It's always good to be careful."

His thoughts had wandered down a more unpleasant path and he could feel his heart sink as he began to realize the real consequences of there being men who held such power. They could burn holes through walls. Blow up buildings if the wanted to. Batman was the best of the best, but against someone who could command the elements like some fairy tale magus? What the hell kind of chance did he have against that?

Bruce was careful to keep his thoughts behind his polite mask. "No turning people into frogs?"