25th Resurrection - Strange Change

[sanctusdei]

[Shina was droned. Margot was droned. Tlachtga was droned. Kay won't speak to him, and neither will Ken

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[istheatmosphere]

[Oh hi there, fellow supposed-to-be-dead-person. Mokuren sees you talking to the crows in the park and feels kind of wistful. She hasn't been in Mayfield long, but she really hates not having her powers. What sucks the most is not being able to commune with plants, but not being able to commune with animals comes a close second.

What's a girl gotta do to get her powers back around here? Maybe this guy knows. So she walks up to him and attempts to make small-talk.]

Isn't it sort of unfair to play against a bird?

[sanctusdei]

[He sort of gives you a flat look.]

I don't want to play against him, but he's insisting.

[The bird caws and flaps it wings in protest. Theo shoots it a frown.]

Honestly, all the animals you find in town act as empty-headed as the drones, so they're not exactly the best opponents anyway.

[The other crow chatters something at him. He rolls his eyes, and then pats it on the head.]

[istheatmosphere]

But these ones are different. [That's a statement, not a question. As the lunar base's biologist, it had been Mokuren's job to study Earth's animals. She knew crows were the smartest birds on the planet, but they weren't typically smart enough to want to try their talons at chess.]

[sanctusdei]

You're right. That's because they're also my familiars. The process tends to... bond you to each other, so they take an interest in whatever I'm up to.

[istheatmosphere]

Were they originally from Mayfield?

[sanctusdei]

Yeah. So they kinda got a drone personality thanks to that. But I gotta make do with that I have.

[They do seem a bit over-friendly for crows, in part to both being from Mayfield and being his familiars. The one seems a bit shy, but the other, the one who was insisting on playing, seems interested in you.]

[istheatmosphere]

[She chuckles, but there's a bitter undertone.] I suppose that's true for everyone. Do they have names?

[sanctusdei]

[Petting the one close to him now.] You know... I haven't. Never thought of any. They're easy to tell apart though. This one's a big coward. [It caws at him indignantly, and he smirks.]

[istheatmosphere]

[She grins at the indignant bird, and holds out her hand, tentatively, to the other one. This is harder to do, she thinks, when she can't tell when they're thinking. But regular people deal with that all the time.] But what do you do when you want to call them over? Don't tell me you call him 'coward'.

[sanctusdei]

[He smriks at that.]

No, usually I just say, "hey, get over here" and they both show up. Guess maybe naming them would make it more convenient though.

[istheatmosphere]

Probably. So what is it that you do, that you need familiars for?

[sanctusdei]

Just your run-of-the-mill spellcaster. I don't have anything else to do in this goddamn boring town. So I've been trying every kind of magic I can.

[istheatmosphere]

But you didn't have your powers here to begin with, did you? My own powers will likely be of no use in trying to escape this place, but it's quite inconvenient to be without them. [Understatement of the century.]

[sanctusdei]

Nope. Took a few months. You could always go to the post office, if you feel like losing a limb in exchange for them.

No one's powers will get them out of here. This town knows what it's doing. It wouldn't give people their powers back if it was any use against them.

[istheatmosphere]

[Sigh.] I think I'd rather wait. Sacrificing a limb for my powers would be like gouging out my eyes so I could hear better.

I had better get going. It was nice talking to you - oh, I'm so sorry, we haven't even been properly introduced.

My name is Mokuren, and yours?

[sanctusdei]

They might also take memories instead, too. But I don't think you get any sort of the choice in the matter.

Theo.