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11 mos ago
Current why does legend? because evil is a foot
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1 yr ago
alright kids make sure you keep your mercury pills on hand
2 yrs ago
are we sure that kneecaps are real or has big ortho gaslit us all into believing in them
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2 yrs ago
1.5 oz gin, 1.5 oz sweet vermouth, 2 to 4 dashes orange bitters
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2 yrs ago
dra til helvete

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Fionn MacKerracher


@Raineh Daze


Parv.

The way she oh-so-casually abbreviated one of the founding knight's names, one of her old friends, gave him hope that he might manage to convince the others to drop the surplus of formality at some point—beyond just the extent to which they all let him get away with it. That small hope was enough to luckly distract him from commenting on how Tyaethe's adult-size body was still kid sized. Multiple inches shorter than Fanilly, if he had to guess, and Fanilly herself was already fairly short.

Calling attention to that couldn't be a good idea.

"Principles, basics, whichever you want to call it, I'll need to get them down if I'm going to make anything usable out of this." That was quite the if; given his current role, he didn't exactly have the time to dedicate to long study of the magical arts in the way that most who were dedicated to such practice would—nor did he have the surplus of energy to devote to brute-forcing his way into extraordinary effects that Tyaethe did. "But, first..."

He slid from his kneel back into a sitting position, leaning against the wall underneath Tyaethe's window seat, and reached back to grab his half-eaten cake.

"Sambocade."
Fionn MacKerracher


@Raineh Daze


Ridiculous that she wanted to be a knight rather than a mage? Their finding it ridiculous was, in and of itself, ridiculous. She had just been a child at that point; or, at least, wasn't yet aware of her unaging status. Beyond that, mage-knights were a thing. Those instructors had clearly overlooked important possibilities. By the goddesses, if someone like him could even manage to harness enough mana to make some small effect happen, there wasn't much stopping the truly gifted from making their mark in the ranks of a knightly order.

Thinking of harnessing the mana, he couldn't deny that by this point the feeling was making him start to itch. Or feel something close to an itch, anyways. "Green?"

Fionn's eyes shot open, darting over to his hand. Sure enough, there was a hazy nimbus of viridian light emanating from his skin, casting its silvery-green glow across their immediate vicinity. "Muise!" He'd actually done it. It was almost unbelievable; shocked as he was, the focus disappeared almost instantly afterwards, leaving his hand back in its normal, non-luminescent state.

"...I'm going to have to figure out a good way to use this."
Fionn MacKerracher


@Raineh Daze


"You just had your teeth in my wrist, and you're worried I'm going to be bothered by you touching me?" he jested, slipping off the window seat and kneeling forward just to make things a bit easier for the both of them. No doubt, it was still a comical sight—especially given the massive gulf in size between their hands, as she reached out to grab his—but at least she wasn't having to try and squeeze between the window and his own bulk.

He nodded along with the explanation, already closing his eyes as he tried to focus inward. He'd had to make such nigh-meditative efforts before with some of the exercises he'd been doing since he started his fighting career, working up the musculature just to be able to wear his hauberk without any extreme difficulty. The more he worked up the weight, the more times he had to let the rest of the world melt away while his thoughts went to nothing more than how to perform the exercise without hurting himself. Extreme cognizance of the muscle activation, his breathing, his heart rate.

How different could this ultimately be—

Ifreann, that's bright.

Even with his eyes closed, it was uncomfortable, especially as close to his face as it was; he couldn't help but turn away slightly. After that initial shock, though, the rest came into stark clarity. From his back and shoulders, through his chest and down his arm, everything felt like it was tingling. Buzzing, almost; like he'd somehow cut off circulation and feeling was just coming back, or like he'd just worked it all as hard as possible without hurting himself in the days before. Relaxed but tight, and with the amount of power she was pushing through to near-blind him through his own eyelids, he felt like he was on the urge of breaking out into a fit of twitching.

And in only a moment, the rush cut out; feeling returned to normal, the light was gone, and he was left blinking away tears from how bright it was. "Bandia," he breathed, flexing his fingers. It still felt like he might get shocked if he came too close to anything metal after that. "I knew you had a lot to call on, but that's almost ridiculous." Now, though, he had to figure out how to flex that same muscle. Like learning how to wiggle his ears or his nose, it seemed like, but he could feel something pulling along behind the current of energy Tyaethe had been pushing through his arm.

Feeling it at all was the first, and largest, step. Alright, Fionn, nothing to it but to do it. If you try too hard or think through it too much you'll just make yourself fail.

He took a deep breath, closing his eyes again. Focusing on the same sense of tingling, electric pull he could feel getting drawn along behind Tyaethe's own channeled mana. Nothing as explosive as when he was swinging a blade for a cut, or the slower, constant strain of dragging a sled full of stones across the yard. Different. An utterly dissimilar direction, entirely. Just have to—

It was like a small hum, deep in his chest, when he finally found it again. The sort of deep-seated, reverberating vibration he'd come to associate with the passage of a massive column of men and horses nearby, shaking the ground, and him with it. He exhaled, latching onto the pure tone he could feel, and started to mentally direct it down his arm with the same force of will and methodical mindset that he used to control his own breathing when exercising. The tingling spread again, gradually, lesser but still there, from his sternum, through his shoulder, and down to his hand.

He could almost swear he felt the hairs standing up along his arm, following the energy, that alternating warmth and chill pulsing through his veins and muscles as he tried to make light the same as Tyaethe had. "I'm almost afraid to open my eyes and see if this is working," he said after a moment. "Tell me true, are my fingers glowing again?"
Fionn MacKerracher


@Raineh Daze


He wouldn't let himself grin too widely, but Fionn would take the win where he could find it. Truth be told, he also had more that he could turn the conversation to, but he was just as capable of being obstinately friendly as she was at remaining stubbornly alone. The fact that she was now offering to show him something new, without any need for him to ask after it, argue or wheedle for it, or the like, only sweetened the small victory.

"Gotta get started learning it like when I first learned to hold a sword, aye? Sure, let's see if I've got any talent to go with the potential!" Having something new to add to his bag of tricks once he developed some useful minor spells would, at the very least, help him break any possible stalemates he might run into with Renar or Gerard.

By the Goddesses, he could see the expressions on their faces now.

"Hope you can be patient with me, though; I'm more physically minded than anything else." A fact that was blatantly obvious given his build and role within the order.
Fionn MacKerracher


@Raineh Daze


"Knew I should have grabbed one of the custard tarts."

It had been a quick, spur-of-the-moment choice between a custard tart or the fruit tart; in the end, he decided to grab one that might be less commonly taken just in case Tyaethe was the type to prefer something different from the majority. In a way, she still was, but it seemed like everywhere he looked people were always wanting custard tarts. At least it meant more of the others for him!

Momentary muttering aside; "I'm really not forcing myself to do this," he said after another bite. "Getting asked for my blood so immediately was a bit of a shock, sure, but am I not allowed to take an interest in how my fellow knights are doing?"
Fionn MacKerracher


@Raineh Daze



Must be the possible elvish admixture in parts of Velt, he imagined. The idea that he might have some small amount of magical talent to harness was an interesting one, though, even if it wouldn't amount to too much more than parlor tricks; he'd have to look into it. Maybe it'd be enough to get him lateral movement from the knight career track to the paladin one if he had enough to work with.

But before that, there was cheesecake. Reduced down to only one plate and fork, he took a quick bite of the sambocade. Truth be told, elderflower wasn't something he normally went for, but even if he had any notable dislike of the flavour he doubt he'd have minded it much in the cake, even if it didn't have berries and honey atop. He might've grabbed the bread pudding as well, if it weren't for the fact that cold bread pudding was a travesty.

"Hardly implies that it still is one, though," he observed between bites. "Don't see any reason I should be one of the ones contributing to it if that's the case. Spontaneous bloodletting involved or no." Best not to dwell on that albeit-minimal loss overlong, though, lest he help ruin her talkative, seemingly-good mood entirely.

"Thinking of—now that we've established some of your favourite bloods, now you've got to tell me your favourite dessert. So that I know how best to bribe you in the future, of course."
Fionn MacKerracher


@Raineh Daze



"Same thing with other animals," he replied. Beef tasted like beef, mutton like mutton, pork like pork—but subtle differences were always there, depending on the specific breed, what it fed upon, the locality and how that affected what the animal in question fed upon. If he had to guess based on his general diet, he'd probably come across as fairly savoury. Luckily for the both of them he hadn't had any opportunity to hit the casks in the cellar yet today, otherwise this might be even more awkward than it already seemed.

At least the conversation made it a bit less awkward.

"You'll have to tell me if I've got any great magic in me, then," he joked. "Though I doubt I'm magical at all, certainly not nearly as much as—ach, bitseach!" It didn't really hurt all that much, but he'd never liked needles; having a pair jabbed into his wrist like that merited the muttered exclamation, mild or no.

At least she made it quick, even if the bit of dizziness was rapidly setting in. "Just some conversation, really," he said as he rubbed at his wrist. The puncture marks were definitely still noticeable, but Tyaethe didn't lie; it didn't keep bleeding after she was done. That was a definite highlight of the experience. "Can't imagine you get to have much normal talks with many of the other knights, after all—let alone how many are probably too timid, awestruck, or what-have-you to even try in the first place. Do you want one of these desserts now?"
Fionn MacKerracher


@Raineh Daze


Fionn had sharp eyes, and neither the twitch nor the barest bit of reticence in moving didn't go unnoticed. "Listen, even if you're holding it up for me, that's still an awkward position for both of us if I sit on the floor," he grumbled, carefully transferring both plates to one hand, rolling up his sleeve, and walking over to sit next to the diminutive vampire. It sounded like the most she'd be taking would be about a pint, then; that shouldn't be too hard to deal with. Rest up, drink a lot of water or something else minimally intoxicating, stock up on the red meats and organ meats at dinner.

And probably the spinach, if they had any.

"Ever develop any preferences for specific people's blood? There's gotta be taste and texture differences, like, same as with a cow depending what it's fed on lately." Might at least satisfy some of his random curiosity if he was going to experience some mild exsanguination by Tyaethe's fangs. He glanced forlornly down at the cake and the pie, neither of which he could really eat with a single hand without making some sort of mess.

Hopefully it wouldn't take her too long, otherwise he'd wish he had a book or something else to occupy his attention.
Fionn MacKerracher


@Raineh Daze


It made sense. They couldn't well afford just to have a small pool of knights constantly left unable to fulfill their duties just because of constantly feeding Tyaethe, nor would it be particularly feasible to hire in servants just to have their blood drawn when the First and Youngest was feeling peckish. If anything, the latter would probably massively harm the reputation of the order in the long run if news of it got out; sure, it would be all well and good if those who were hired for it knew full well what was expected of them and agreed to it whole-heartedly, but such a tale would massively decrease the hiring pool if anybody who wanted to work in the keep thought they might be expected to give blood. Neverminding that it could be spun as the Iron Roses preying upon the poor and needy, paying them just to feed the local vampire.

Yet it was his blood. He needed it. She said that it wouldn't be too much, that it would only put him out of any strenuous activity, heavy exercise or the like, for the rest of the day; what if she was wrong? What if she accidentally drank too much? It was a silly worry, but it was one that existed all the same. He'd lost decent amounts of blood before, and while the wounds that led to it helped, he was still nearly bedridden afterwards. Surely she wouldn't take that much, though, right?

"How much do you need, and do you prefer to just bite in, or rather cut it open and let it flow that way?" Neither was particularly comfortable to imagine, but sitting there with her teeth sunken into his wrist seemed the less comfortable of the two. "I get to sit down for this, right?" Surely she wasn't so mean as to declare her dedicated spot off-limits even when draining his veins.
Fionn MacKerracher


@Raineh Daze


He started to withdraw the desserts with a small bit of surprise, before reflexively answering "Fionn's fine, honest—"

And then the rest of what she was saying sank in. He blinked once, twice, and raised an eyebrow in morbid curiosity. "There's veins right at the surface in the wrist, and it's easier to bite them open without killing the person anyways. Why would you go for anywhere different?" A simple, clinical fact; anywhere else trying to reach the blood would probably need more damage to be done to the surrounding flesh, and would be harder to stop the bleeding after.

He blinked again. That was probably the wrong outlook to take on this.

"Wait, is this the normal protocol for having a conversation with you, or do you just ask every knight this eventually?" Probably only the clean ones, actually; he couldn't imagine biting into one of the grimier, unwashed fools among the knights would be a particularly pleasant experience. Beyond the extent to which being a vampire probably wasn't the most pleasant experience to begin with.
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