(Untitled)

[leucemic_god]

Time: April 20, 2001
Place: Hospital Wing
Status: Private (Loki, Anathema, John, Bill, Sphix, Gabriel ... if anybody else thinks they should be in here, please ask)
Summary: It's been practised on a chicken without a problem, so what could go wrong?

Comments

[anathema_witch]

Opening the door to Loki's room, the first thign she noticed was the lack of said god in the bed he usually was to be found in. Frowning when she spotted him, his hand against the wall, trying to walk towards the door.

"Loki, you could have waited at least another two seconds you know," she said, going over to him, and crossing her arms across her chest. "Don't you think it would be better if you rested as much as possible. Who knows what could go wrong if you are more exhausted than normal?"

Well, she had come in here to get Loki and help him out of the room, and along with that try to take his mind off of what might happen. Things never really went as planned in the manor though, did they. Seems more she may be scaring Loki instead.

[leucemic_god]

Loki didn't mind the short drop in the slightest. He beamed up at Bill.

"Can we do that again?" Hey, it was a lot more fun than being decursed was likely to be.

[no_npc_here]

Bill didn't manage to resist the urge to roll his eyes, and smirked at John and Anathema. "Corpusardium Leviosa."

After all, the happier the patient was, the easier the curse-breaking was likely to go. Bill needed Loki to be wide-awake, or at least conscious, during the procedure.

[leucemic_god]

"Yay!" Loki spread his arms and enjoyed the feeling of flight laughing with delight. Sometimes it took so little to make him forget his problems.

[no_npc_here]

After about half a minute, Bill lowered Loki again. "Now that you've had your fun, shall we go back to breaking the curse?"

Bill handed his spare wand to Anathema and said, "Just do what you did last time." A brief smile flitted across his face before it settled back into a more serious expression.

Turning back to Loki, Bill said, "Please stay awake during the whole procedure. I want you to say something if there is any discomfort at all - regardless of how minor it may seem to you." He stepped out of the circle.

Taking a deep breath, Bill dove into the tangled threads of the curse.

[leucemic_god]

"Sure," Loki agreed with a reassuring smile that would probably have caused Bill to get worried, if he'd known him better.

Intellectually Loki knew what modern people meant by discomfort, but it didn't change his Norse background. Whining over such minor things as bruises or severe headaches was just not done.

[anathema_witch]

Stepping up next to Bill, Anathema nodded. "Alright," she said, "I am ready too."

She was steeling herself for this. It wasn't everyday that something like this happened to her. She wondered if this was a regular occurence to do for Bill, seeing as he works professionally as a cursebreaker. She would have to ask him. Later. When Loki was free of the curse.

[no_npc_here]

So far the curse-breaking was going well - well, as well as could be expected. Bill had located a few supplementary strands of the curse and had cut them at vital points, but the heart of the curse was evading him. It looked like it was feeding off Loki, which was bad. He needed a break.

"Anathema, could you please?" Bill pointed at the curse, which shimmered and pulsed, faintly glowing.

[leucemic_god]

This was getting ... uncomfortable. The cursebreaking didn't actually hurt, but there had been a slight tingling of magic the moment Bill had started the spell and since then several ... well, sudden pulls was probably the best way to describe it. Each pull had left Loki feeling a little bit more dizzy and light haded.

He didn't say anything, though. After all he was supposed to be a tough god and it didn't even hurt. Besides the symptoms were so similar to those of his leukaemia. Maybe that was all they were and he was just hyper aware of them now. He didn't want to admit that the cursebreaking was making him nervous.

[dangeroushabits]

John stayed crouched next to the circle, stoically ignoring a nicotine fit and keeping a close eye on the sigils and on the tableau as a whole. Loki was looking a little bit antsy, but he'd have been pretty surprised if that wasn't the case--the undercurrents of power Bill's spell was throwing off had the room thrumming on a sublimal level. Anybody in the Manor with any sensitivity (which was to say, most of the occupants) was probably aware that something was happening up here. They probably should have thought to post a guard at the door in case anyone came to investigate.

It was making him itch, for sure, and the fine hair on the back of his arms stand up. Normally when he got this feeling, he was the one in the driver's seat, so to speak, and it was a little unsettling to have to leave something this big in the hands of...well, a kid with a stick, basically. Not that he doubted Bill knew his business, and Ana seemed to be handling her part just fine too. He just hating staying on the sidelines. He'd never been very good at

[anathema_witch]

Stopping herself from shivering at the feel of the magical energy around her, Anathema pointed the wand at the curse Bill had pointed out to her and did the spell she was taught to do.

Everything was going smoothly so far...hopefully it would stay that way.

[no_npc_here]

Bill studied the curse, walking this way and that to get a better view. It didn't help very much. The end (or possibly the beginning) of the next strand that had to be cut was nowhere in sight. "Constantine, could you come over here for a moment?" Bill's expression was fairly blank, but it didn't manage to hide the tinge of unease the redhead was feeling.

"Do you see the slightest bit of yellow-gold anywhere?"

[dangeroushabits]

John shook his head as he walked over to stand beside Bill. "I don't see anything. It's not a visual thing for me." As he spoke, though, he was 'tuning in' on the area Bill was focused on, tracing with his mind's eye the invisible latticework formed by the energy of his circle toward the points where it intersected the ephemeral strands of the Knot. With the atmosphere in here so charged with magical energy, he could feel them in a sense he would have had a tough time explaining to anyone who hadn't done this sort of thing.

The virulent harmonics of Czernobog's energy made him want to wince, but for Loki's sake he kept his own expression neutral as well. "I might still be able to help though. What are you trying to do?"

[no_npc_here]

"I cast a spell that helps me identify which strands of the curse I should cut, and in what order, by turning the next strand in the sequence yellow-gold. Only problem is, I can't find the next yellow-gold strand. By rights the sequence should be following an anti-clockwise spiral, but so far it hasn't, and now I have no idea where to unearth it." Lowering his voice, Bill then continued, "There is another problem - the curse seems to be feeding off Loki, and if I don't cut the Knot properly, it might cause a rip in ...him." Bill struggled to put a name to whatever-it-was of Loki's that was analogous to a wizard's magic and finally settled on "His essence, I suppose."

[dangeroushabits]

John's eyes narrowed. "It shouldn't be able to do that," he muttered distractedly, feeling his way cautiously along the closest strand of energy, slowly building an image in his mind of what the Knot would look like if he could see it. A monotone image, unfortunately, since he had no idea what color any given strand would be in Bill's perception.

The circle should be preventing the Knot from having any effect on Loki at all, but then you had to expect some surprises when you were dealing with mucked-up godly magic. He took some comfort in the fact that there was no sign the Knot had done any of the other nasty things to Loki that Bill had predicted it might. He then put that complication out of his mind; there was no point fretting about it now, they'd already gone too far to back out

[no_npc_here]

"It might. Even with the circle, the Knot is still quite unstable - I think it's one of its inherent properties."

Bill gave a short sigh and said, "Okay, Anathema, just release the spell now."

"It's one of the binding strands of the curse - nothing too major, except for the very fact that it's avoiding me." Make like he was going to grab for it, huh? That was going to be easier said than done. He went over the sequence in his head again, looking at the order from all points of view. Suddenly, the answer popped into his head - it looked unnervingly like an inverted cat's cradle. Bill wondered what the significance was of that.

Steadying himself, Bill said, "It should be right here..."