XOqNI

[tongueamok]

Hello, this is Carlisle. I mean, it's not Carlisle as in I'm actually answering you right now, so if you're trying to reply to me at the second, you should probably save your breath because I'm not really here. This is some kind of a recording of my voice, but this is my communicator. I'm going to assume these devices are as common here as they are in other places — not my world, but others, ones more technologically advanced than where I come from— so if you'd like to leave me a message, then you may do so here, or er... Right. Here is fine. So just leave yo— [beep]

Comments

[tongueamok]

I'm aware.

[Said with all the venom of a man who knows well enough he isn't as useful as he'd like to be.]

[tongueamok]

No. Kate probably has some next door, if you want to over and ask. She was just here a while ago.

[tongueamok]

[He stiffens with annoyance, but manages his temper with a deep breath, in and out, and sinks onto the couch, looking at the papers that litter the coffee table. They're all covered in runes, symbols painted with ink, names scribbled beside them. Some pages are clearly practice sheets with the same rune drawn over and over.]

Healing is a complex and difficult craft. It's not like glyphcrafting that practically anyone can do.

[He lets out a sigh, his tone sinking.] And the hardest parts can't be taught. You either have talent, or you don't, and if you don't, you're better off finding something you can be good at.

[tongueamok]

I couldn't tell you. I suppose it's a matter of seeing them do it and thinking, 'Ah, how nice it is that what I have studied for years came so easily to them.' Not the healing, obviously, but glyphcrafting. I'm good at the former, and not so much at the latter.

[He pulls some of the papers off the table, flipping through them before tossing them aside. His despondence over them is probably why he's been drinking.]

[tongueamok]

It depends on the glyph. Evocation, illusion, abjuration. I was practicing that last one. A minor Glyph of Warding.

[He should probably learn to be specific, though to be fair, he would likely be so if he wasn't fighting a headache.

It's his turn for a question.]

Why is it you ask? You are capable of apparition, something I've seen no Forest Folk do. Why does simple glyphcrafting even interest you? Or healing, for that matter, now that these trinkets are readily available?

[tongueamok]

You didn't even— [He cuts himself off, bewildered.] I mean, you're a Forest Folk. You're a talk hedgehog! How can you not know that?

[tongueamok]

You're a talking animal. That's Forest Folk. And they're all about your size. Wear more clothes, though. Why don't you wear pants like the rest of them?

[tongueamok]

Well neither are most of the humans here, but we all still go by 'human,' now don't we!?

[Why is he yelling? Why are they yelling? His head hurts. Stop yelling.]

[tongueamok]

[Oh yeah. The 'ultimate life form.' That was what Kate had called him, wasn't it? And he'd laughed at the time, because the idea of a Forest Folk as the 'ultimate life form' is just hilarious.

Oh dear. He's laughing again, right now. It starts low in the back of his throat, an unfamiliar rumbling rattling through his chest, and then explodes. So much for wanting quiet to combat his headache.]

[tongueamok]

[Yep, he is indeed laughing at him. He keeps going only for a moment longer, the laughter dying down in his chest. He rubs at it, as though it was a painful experience.]

My apologies, Shadow. Truly. Forest Folk are barely capable of magic where I come from, so to think of one as the 'ultimate life form' is a laughable idea. But of all people, I should know better than to judge by one's appearance. Surprises often come from the most unassuming of places.

[tongueamok]

[He sighs, still smiling. He should know better than to laugh at the poor fellow, but he couldn't help it. The idea of one of the kitten-kind from around Bear Den walking up to him, looking him dead on with those huge, watery eyes of theirs, and proclaiming in a squeaky voice to be the 'ultimate life form' is downright hysterical, even to a guy who so rarely finds comedy in anything.]

My point being [he starts, apparently remembering what they were discussing] before we got so off-course is that it's odd that a powerful fellow like yourself seems so interested in the inner workings of healing baubles like the ones Galloway has constructed. Do you expect she'd make them just to backfire?

[tongueamok]

[At least it works, which is better than no healing at all, he'd say. He chuckles again.]

Aheh. If you're looking to rely on only yourself for the rest of your existence, I'm afraid you'll be sorely disappointed by the end of it. Facing danger alone and being too proud to ask for assistance is a road to death.