Thread 17
>>142144 Thread 18
>>144306 Thread 19
>>148938 In which the
WIZARD RIDES AGAIN! [X] The smallest of hints, previously unnoticed. You wake up with a rabbit on your head.
Cranking open bleary eyes, you scan the room. Mokou is snoozing on the floor mats by the big sliding door in back, her head pillowed on a rabbit. From the feel of it, about a dozen rabbits are pillowed on
you, completely covering you from head to toe.
You close your eyes again, content to doze all morning. Hell, you’ve earned it.
Furtive little floorboard creaks prompt another squint, revealing Keine in a nightdress carefully picking her way over and through the rabbit-covered floor towards the back door. Stepping over Mokou, she gingerly slides it open, her clothes, makeup kit and brush gathered precariously in her free arm. She steals outside stealthily, no doubt to the bathhouse.
You close your eyes again. Women are silly. Who’s going to see her all sleep-rumpled in her own home? And who’d care? Not the rabbits, or Miss Hotpants or Duke or-
- you pop off your bed like a flat steel spring, sending surprised rabbits flying everywhere. You leap for the kitchen door and slam it shut a breath ahead of twelve pissed-off rabbits. Filling the sink with warm water and a little soap, you jam your head in and blow bubbles to provide agitation for a minute or two, then yank it out and shake it violently like a dog. Snatching a dish-towel from the counter you furiously dry yourself.
Footsteps approach the door, and in panic you tear open the magic cold-box and fling the towel inside.
The door slides aside to reveal Mokou.
You’re leaning against the refrigerator casually.
“Sup.”
“... whatever depraved shit you’re doing, just keep it away from the food,” Mokou mutters, closing the door with more force then strictly necessary.
Bitch.
You whip up a fire in the stove and put the tea-kettle on. After a moment’s thought, you scrounge up another one and put that on, too. Do sentient mean rabbits drink tea? Perhaps not, but why risk it?
Digging in your robe’s magical pocket, you produce your grimories, lay them on the counter and take a deep breath to clear your mind, which is surprisingly easy. You
really slept well. Then you focus on selecting your spells.
Wizards live or die by the spells they prepare in the morning. Some go with favorites, useful in many situations. Others pick specialty spells and a few good ‘escape’ spells to simply flee if they’re caught unprepared. The rest tend towards arsenals of subtle, pernicious dewomers that can ensnare most anything that walks the planes.
You prepare spells to become a magic-immune iron dragon swimming in lava at the speed of light.
When in Rome, etc.
You’re just finishing your morning prep when Keine enters the kitchen. She starts a little at seeing you.
“Oh!”
“Morning~” you say cheerfully, hoping your hair has dried. “Tea ought be ready.”
“That’s what I wanted to hear,” Mokou grumps, bumping past Keine as she makes for the stove. Rummaging in the cabinets, she disdains the little teacups and produces a cavernous mug, pouring half a teapot into it.
“For the rabbits,” she answers Keine’s dubious look. She squeezes out of the small kitchen again to greet an eager crowd of bunnies, snouts upturned and sniffing the air.
“So, what would you like for breakfast?” Keine asks you, a little too brightly.
“Food,” you answer honestly.
“Omelets?” Keine asks, and you nod. “Great. Toast?” You nod. “Great! How about hash browns, you can’t have eggs without potatoes. Oh, and biscuits, I’ve got biscuit gravy and all sorts of stuff for it...” The schoolteacher flings open the ice-box and begins rummaging energetically.
Seeking a refill, Mokou enters the kitchen in time to see Keine toss the dish-towel over her shoulder with nary a notice as she digs through the cold-box. “I’ve got some strawberries and buttermilk for pancakes, to go with the eggs, and – oh, sausage! Just have a seat in the main room I’ll be right out with this, which would you like first?”
Mokou’s head leisurely swings ‘round to share the expression of the completely unmoved. Tabling her mug, she latches onto Keine’s hem and hauls her out of the ice-box, kicking the door closed.
“
I will make breakfast,” Mokou states flatly over Keine’s cry of protest. “Because you two had such a tough night, let me take care of it.”
“But-!”
“Why don’t you sit down in your room, away from the rabbits and have a nice cup of tea with your new friend here?”
Panic fills Keine’s eyes as she dares a glance at you. “BUT~!”
“Don’t you want to sit down and drink some fucking
tea?” Mokou growls, shooting you a look.
You nod hastily.
“Great,” she says, and shoves Keine out the door unceremoniously. Then she shoves the other teapot into your arms, shoves a pair of cups in your pocket and shoulders you out of the kitchen.
“Breakfast in fifteen,” she says, and
slams the flimsy wooden door so hard it vibrates.
Um. You look around for help, but only see Cirno on your bed, head pillowed on one rabbit and arms wrapped around another, its pink nose buried in the crook of her shoulder. In the other corner lies a large wolf; Duke in his canine form. Curled nose to tail on the floormats, he slumbers happily, surrounded at a respectful distance by a ring of watchful bunnies.
You hand Keine a teacup and daintily pour her a cuppa. “How’d you sleep?”
“Not much. Normal though... this time of month.” She keeps her eyes on her teacup, swirling the liquid nervously. “You?”
“Fantastic. Felt like I slept for
months.”
From the bed, the rabbit that’d been sleeping on your noggin gives you the stink-eye and sneezes in disgust before turning away from you.
Keine smiles at the floor. “No tossing or turning, you slept like the dead. I guess rabbits make the best pillows?”
“When they’re asleep,” you say, shooting a glare at the head-napper. You sip at your tea, wondering why Keine’s being so evasi-
You suck in your breath so fast you inhale some tea. Keine jumps forward in alarm as you sputter for air, but you ward her off with an upraised palm as you recover.
Evasive.
Waking the dead.
Nervous, evasive, waking the dead-
“I know you like caffeine but you can’t
swim in it,” Keine says in teacherly tones as she confiscates the teapot. “Are you okay?”
“Patchouli,” you reply.
Keine blinks.
“That is not okay,” she says in a strained voice.
“No, no. Yesterday. In the library. I mentioned necromancy,” you say. “She got all antsy and changed the subject really quick.” You smack yourself upside the head. “Bloody... how could I miss that until now?”
“Oh. Oh!” Keine replies, steadying your hand with hers and applying the teapot. “Have more tea. You think better with it.”
You smile at the schoolteacher. “I don’t think it’s the tea, Keine.”
She sips at her tea demurely, trying hide a little smile. Speaking of things you’ve been missing... you’re sure you know why Keine’s growing so thundershy recently, you just can’t nail it down. You ponder a tactful question –
- the back of your neck tingles as into your awareness blossoms magical energies just above the kitchen door –
scrying. Adrienne surges and your skin tingles as you rush aside all thought to focus on the fading dewomer of
Detect Scrying. Feeling the scry, tasting the unique interplay of energies, you find the distant thread of divination, feel along its length, and at a weak spot you
push. The caster reacts instantly, struggling to maintain the spells integrity, and somewhere very, very distant you hear ceramic crack and shatter as you fight to wrest the spell away from the interloper. Distant chanting fills your ears as more energy is poured into the clairvoyant link. Bullying into that link with magical might and arcane deftness, you struggle to capture the spell. Jaw grinding, pulse pounding loud in your ears, you strain with desperate fury for mental traction.
At last, at the brink of hope, your foe slips, and your vision swims as the clairvoyance turns on the caster. As
Detect Scrying’s energies expire, a final image shines clear in the air before you.
The tea-chugging asthmatic adversely aromatic pervert punk Patchouli. [ ] WIZARD RETALIATION MISSION
[ ] LOOK INTO MY EYE
BITE Aren’t gaze attacks a bitch? [ ] SHAMEFUR DISPRAY
[spoiler]Stop scrying p-pervert!
[ ] Write-in?
