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[femme_wizard]

Eska's in the bar sitting at a table, and seemingly staring very hard at a cocktail stirrer.

There's almost certainly a reason. She looks sober enough.

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[muddy_mutt]

There's a voice from under the table:

"Whatcha you hypnotiz'n a cocktail stirrer for?"

There is a dog under the table. A dog with a bowl of beer. But don't worry, it's his first tonight.

[femme_wizard]

"I'm not hypnotising it," she says, not looking up. Or down. "I'm enchanting it with a colour-related PKE measurement spell. Hi, Gaspode."

[muddy_mutt]

"Hallo Eska."

He's struggling up a stair to see better. And then looks longingly down to his bowl. He has learned to hate making decisions, this one. And getting angry even about the little ones... His gaze is shifting. Cocktail stirrer. Bowl. Bowl. Cocktail stirrer. It finally rests on the cocktail stirrer.

"What's PKE?"

[femme_wizard]

Eska pauses, and cuts off the longwinded explanation.

"Magic."

[muddy_mutt]

"Ah. I should have thought so."

He's baring his teeth on one side like a crooked smile. Few dogs can. And jumps down back to his bowl. Licking his lips, he tries again:

"And what's it supposed to do when you're finished?"

[femme_wizard]

"It'll take on different colours depending on the type and strengths of certain magics," Eska explains. "Actually, it doesn't that now. I'm just refining it."

[muddy_mutt]

"Some kind of magic detector, then? Like, going purple when Asar-Suti passes by?"

[femme_wizard]

"That's right," Eska confirms. "More than just a plain thaumomter, this gives the type and world. I've almost worked it out completely now."

[muddy_mutt]

"It's a pity you can't try it on me any more."

He's scratching a spot behind his ear. A gesture so universal that it doesn't give away anything about the emotions behind the sentence.

[femme_wizard]

"You can still talk," Eska says, holding it near him, and smiling when it does turn faintly octarine. Then she frowns, as her own senses pick it up.

"There's residual background Disc magic, there, but something else I don't quite recognise..."

[muddy_mutt]

"Doesn't your own magic tamper with it? I mean, you should always detect Disc magic, if you hold it, don't you?" Then her words arrive in his brain. "Something else? But the spell has worn out! Do you think someone has cursed me?"

He's running in circles like chasing his tail, as if the curse was sitting in his neck and would go away if he only could spot it.

[femme_wizard]

Eska shakes her head.

"No, My magic's background. I can ignore that. It's like when you're so used to your own smell it doesn't interfere with other scents.

"This is... old. And Disc in origin, I think. It's just different from normal background magic. And it's faint. As if it's just been hanging around you for years.

"Oh, and the effect Serena had on your morphogenic field is still there, of course."

[muddy_mutt]

"Ah. OK." He calms down a little. "It might be the wild ideas still. Have you heard of Holy Wood?"

[femme_wizard]

"No," Eska says with a frown. "I can't say I have."

[muddy_mutt]

"Well, I hope you never will. It was quite scary. -- Do you think I could use it? Could we try?"

[femme_wizard]

She blinks.

"Use the 'wild ideas'? I don't even know what they are, They sound like ideons."