HALO CLXXXV: The Titles End Here

[Reinholdt]

[Maid Café and Book Signing - Catgirls and Eye Candy]

"Right? The whole point of education is to learn what you don't know! I think..." Rachel may have dropped a few grades she should have stuck in, but it's fine. She has her own business after all.

The Dragon Man was too embarrassed to give his name. That makes sense to Rachel. "Hey, don't worry about it. I was nervous the first time I publicly cosplayed too. It happens to all of us." It is a little embarrassing to be fair.

[A Singular Hallway]

Maria won't judge a jackal-headed man by his smile. She's met many sinister smiling species in the past and only eighty percent of those were thinking about eating him.

She does judge him for breaking the only way to see his sister though. That seems unnecessarily rude to famil- oh no wait, she gets that too. Maria did swap bodies just to avoid her own sister. Huh. Still, Maria frowns at Aurelius before the elevator doors close.

Stepping out into the hallway, Maria notices the book's weight changing much more acutely than she does her own surroundings and checks it immediately to see if it's changed, unlike what Aurelius had implied. Even if it hadn't changed, she fully intends to start reading it on her way back to the library.

[Magtok]

[Maid Café and Book Signing - A Slip Of The Forked Tongue]

[Maid Café and Book Signing - Watching Snakes]

"Perhaps he'd rather avoid-" Hang on. Dorota pauses in the middle of an explanation. They didn't make it publicly known that the book is an effort against the King in Rags. "I- I mean, I don't know which fey you mean, sir." She tries and fails to give Blagtok a polite, inquiring smile.

"Oh. Sorry, I assumed that part of things was common knowledge," Blagtok frowns, brow creasing with concern. If his intention was to blend in and maintain a low profile until he could slip away, he's certainly failed at that now. There's no way this maid is going to forget him now, even with the rapidly decaying magic still in effect. He needs to figure out some polite way to excuse himself, some reasonable explanation for why he has to leave right this minute, one which doesn't make him look like some undercover agent of the fae in question.

"Well I'm sure if there was a fae being targeted by the book, and if that fae was going to send someone here as a response, we would've heard from his emissary by now. That emissary would surely be very loudly trying to contradict the story by being big and scary, and not sipping tea and minding their own business," Blagtok suggests, hoping to deter Dorotha from suspecting the most suspicious individual in the room.

[Ironsmith]

[Airbase]

Seraphina looks at the thing Maria's giving her...and sees it's just a paper. "Oh, um, yeah, if I ever get some other lingering curse I know who I'll come to first," she says. "H-have fun sleeping," she adds.

Once she's gone, Seraphina looks at the paper.
Oh.
Ten numbers.
"Oh, so this is her phone number," she says once Vlad mentions it. Seraphina looks at the paper again. Where would she get a phone to call it, anyway? she wonders. "Question. How common are pay phones around here?" she asks. A pay phone is much simpler than asking someone to borrow their phone, after all. Maybe she should call her? When would be an appropriate amount of time to wait? At the very least, should she wait until she gets this whole memory thing figured out? If she does, then hopefully she'll remember why she originally came to HALO, since what she remembers (a flying and talking shark invited her to visit) is obviously also part of the false memories.

Seraphina sighs.
"Oh, great, now I'm imagining saws growing very human-like teeth out of them," she says, as she tries to hold the manacle and her hand as still as possible. "I hope that never happens, it sounds really horrifying."

[Airbase]

"Not very." Vlad squaks between rounds of drying the manacle, sanding off the rust, and applying a new layer of corrosive solution. "At least not that I've seen around here. There isn't much call for one on-site when almost everyone has their own and a few dozen redundant ways of communicating. And they're even less common back home; unless you're a hobbyist, good luck getting your hands on the appropriate files."

"Fortunately," He quips, tapping a few buttons on his Hotbox and producing a small flip phone. "We solved that one a few decades ago." He holds the phone out to her, the already-small device appearing comically small and delicate in his massive steel hand.

[Morty]

[Maid Café and Book Signing - A Slip Of The Forked Tongue]

Dorota's leg twitches a little as suspicions flood her mind. This man is clearly up to something. And who else could he be working for, if not the archfey who they're trying to weaken by this book? She realizes she might be face to face with an infiltrator and she has no idea how to proceed. Her kidnapping by Rose hasn't exactly done wonders for her self-confidence in such situations, either.

"Here... is your tea, sir. I need to attend to the other guests now."

Her eyes cast about for Reinholdt. Surely he knows what to do, right?

[Of Swords and Dragons]

"I believe so." In truth, Wenomir is guessing somewhat wildly. "My style focuses on speed. Including sudden bursts of speed. Like lightning. Suddenly moving and producing wind or thunder seems to flow from it."

[Reinholdt]

[Maid Café and Book Signing - A Slip Of The Forked Tongue]

Reinholdt's not too far away, pretty hard to miss really. That outfit he's wearing really draws attention to... his eyes.

Which are directed away from Dorota at the moment, given he has a job of watching Arty for suspicious duplicity. Rein has really found nothing but the opposite really though so it's been less exciting than he hoped. Perhaps Dorota will save Rein from these doldrums of humdrums.

[Zefir]

[Maid Café and Book Signing - Catgirls and Eye Candy]

"You're right, it doesn't make sense," June tells Rachel. "The only other schools that work that way are, like, higher education. And all the ones in stories are for first-time magic users."

She addresses the half-dragon man who's not named Jeeves, and continues. "If you can't use magic, then how are you going to learn if the only places that teach it don't teach how to do it? It's not really fair, at all," she says. "It's like...it's like...if some technomancer said you're not allowed to use phones just because you've never used them before."

[Maid Café and Book Signing - Catgirls and Eye Candy]

"Right? The whole point of education is to learn what you don't know! I think..." Rachel may have dropped a few grades she should have stuck in, but it's fine. She has her own business after all.

The Dragon Man was too embarrassed to give his name. That makes sense to Rachel. "Hey, don't worry about it. I was nervous the first time I publicly cosplayed too. It happens to all of us." It is a little embarrassing to be fair.

[Maid Café and Book Signing - Catgirls and Eye Candy]

He sights slightly but tries to not let it show.
"It is different." he tries to explain. "Magic has it's own rule. In some ways magic can only be used by people who have the ability to use it. Like a person who is deaf and dumb won't be able to make a normal call with a phone. He might do video, text etc, but he will never be able to do a normal call."

Mr. C is not sure what Rachel means. he doesn't feel embarrassed. He just did an awful job with trying to get a date with them after work. He really should have read the "Hypnotise every woman with your muscels" book. Might have helped. So he remains confused.

[Shadowcaller]

[Of Swords and Dragons]

"It would make sense that your style influences it as it acts like an extension of yourself. Much like your own sword." She gestures at the answer.
"Inventing your own distinct style is an amazing feat in itself. But much like in science it requires others of a similar skill to be able to replicate it. Otherwise it shouldn't really be studied from the perspective of a martial artist, no? Since it would be an abnormality. Something that only happens due to some unique set of circumstances." Those being 'you are Wenomir'.

"So do you believe that this could be taught to someone else?"

[Maid Café and Book Signing]

Now that the performance is over, the two cultists - the overweight, balding man and the woman with dyed blonde hair and her roots showing - get up and get in line to get their homemade and hand-bound books signed.[/color]

[Maid Café and Book Signing]

'Jane' smiles at the two as they approach. "So who am I signing these for?"

[Morty]

[Of Swords and Dragons]

"I don't see why it wouldn't be." Wenomir swings his sword through the air as if to test it. "If I can do it, so can others. The old masters did such things in the past and taught them to their students. But it wouldn't be easy. And I'd need to spend a long time studying the fundamentals before I could try teaching them."

[Magtok]

Maid Café and Book Signing - A Slip Of The Forked Tongue

Blagtok stares down at his tea, struggling to conceive of a way to fix this kerfuffle he's inadvertently bungled his way into. This is not going to go well if he starts running for the exit, but he can't just sit here and wait for Dorota to get Reinholdt and drag him over here. He could possibly run off to the bathroom and change into a different set of clothes, since there's little chance Dorotha would recognize him, but in the time it'd take to do that, the enchantment is bound to wear off, and then we'll have a whole new set of problems when HALO members see that Magtok is attending the event but too stingy and self-absorbed to participate, despite his supposed status as a HALO member himself.

Actually, hold on...their concern is that he's a King in Rags agent, right? If he just starts hurrying now, headed for the exit, they might just assume they successfully scared off the would-be saboteur and leave him alone. Everyone would get what they want and his identity would be secure!

Blagtok takes one last sip of his soup and stands up from the table he was seated at. If he just starts walking now, calmly and quietly, without rushing or showing any outward sign of panic, we can be out of here before they even notice we've left! C'mon now, Blag! One foot in front of the other, let's go!

[Morty]

[Maid Café and Book Signing - A Slip Of The Forked Tongue]

"Umm... Reinholdt?" Dorota asks in what she thinks is a conspiratorial whisper when she reaches him. "I think that man might be a spy from... you know who. Oh. Now he's leaving. But he knew why we're releasing this book somehow."

[Thursday Violist]

[A Singular Hallway]

Maria won't judge a jackal-headed man by his smile. She's met many sinister smiling species in the past and only eighty percent of those were thinking about eating him.

She does judge him for breaking the only way to see his sister though. That seems unnecessarily rude to famil- oh no wait, she gets that too. Maria did swap bodies just to avoid her own sister. Huh. Still, Maria frowns at Aurelius before the elevator doors close.

Stepping out into the hallway, Maria notices the book's weight changing much more acutely than she does her own surroundings and checks it immediately to see if it's changed, unlike what Aurelius had implied. Even if it hadn't changed, she fully intends to start reading it on her way back to the library.

[A Singular Hallway]

Eighty percent of the time is a lot when it comes to getting eaten.

Sadly, as Maria is too busy reading the book, she won't notice the elevator disappear behind her. Fortunately, however, it still appears to be the same book. It didn't suddenly transform into a trashy romance novel. Granted, some of the myths and legends in them are romance-related, but it still remains the same book. The same book that slightly changes its stories every time it's read.

[Airbase]

"Not very." Vlad squaks between rounds of drying the manacle, sanding off the rust, and applying a new layer of corrosive solution. "At least not that I've seen around here. There isn't much call for one on-site when almost everyone has their own and a few dozen redundant ways of communicating. And they're even less common back home; unless you're a hobbyist, good luck getting your hands on the appropriate files."

"Fortunately," He quips, tapping a few buttons on his Hotbox and producing a small flip phone. "We solved that one a few decades ago." He holds the phone out to her, the already-small device appearing comically small and delicate in his massive steel hand.

[Airbase]

It crosses through Seraphina's mind that maybe she should've just gone with the faster method, if it's going to go at this speed. Rusting, sanding, waiting, repeating. But, then she remembers why she chose against it.

...

Admittedly, though, Seraphina is glad that Maria already left: since Vlad isn't a librarian (or whatever else it was that caused Seraphina's hunger to peak and arrive a day early, she doesn't know she'll have to figure that out eventually), it's going to be a lot easier for her to keep her head cool during this time. "Huh. That sucks, pay phones are so much more convenient," she claims.

Pay phones more convenient than a cell phone? That's got to be nonsense.

The hotbox definitely confuses Seraphina, though. What is that, some kind of...portable microwave or something? That he keeps his phone inside? She does grab the cell so that it doesn't fall out of his large steel hand, but she says, "Oh, um, I'm not going to call her right now," she says, "so I don't need to borrow your phone."

[Maid Café and Book Signing]

'Jane' smiles at the two as they approach. "So who am I signing these for?"

[Maid Café and Book Signing]

The balding man pushes his book in front to be done first. Compared to the other one, it's much more standard-looking, but still definitely home-made. "Oh, you don't have to know my name to -" he says, before he's cut off by the woman with the dyed-blonde hair.

"Oh, get off your high horse, stop acting like you're cool," she says. She jabs her thumb into his shoulder, and says, "He's Scorpio Albertus, I'm Suzana Melano. Feel free to call him lame when you sign it, he likes that sort of stuff."

The guy glares at the blonde woman. That's clearly not true. Instead of correcting her, however, he retorts, "When you sign hers, she'd love it if you signed it 'Angela' instead of anything else."

[Maid Café and Book Signing - Catgirls and Eye Candy]

"Right? The whole point of education is to learn what you don't know! I think..." Rachel may have dropped a few grades she should have stuck in, but it's fine. She has her own business after all.

The Dragon Man was too embarrassed to give his name. That makes sense to Rachel. "Hey, don't worry about it. I was nervous the first time I publicly cosplayed too. It happens to all of us." It is a little embarrassing to be fair.

[Maid Café and Book Signing - Catgirls and Eye Candy]

He sights slightly but tries to not let it show.
"It is different." he tries to explain. "Magic has it's own rule. In some ways magic can only be used by people who have the ability to use it. Like a person who is deaf and dumb won't be able to make a normal call with a phone. He might do video, text etc, but he will never be able to do a normal call."

Mr. C is not sure what Rachel means. he doesn't feel embarrassed. He just did an awful job with trying to get a date with them after work. He really should have read the "Hypnotise every woman with your muscels" book. Might have helped. So he remains confused.

[Maid Café and Book Signing - Catgirls and Eye Candy]

To be fair, the dragon guy is doing pretty well so far: his muscles are pretty hot. That's half the battle. The other half, however, is probably the hardest part. Muscle-based hypnotism would be probably really effective. Muscle-based hypnotism (or something close enough to it) has actually worked on June before.

"If magic has its own rules, then someone just needs to find a way to make it work for more people. I mean, that's how technology usually works, right? Something doesn't work for everybody then someone works hard and then makes it accessible to more people," June says.

[Ironsmith]

[Airbase]

It crosses through Seraphina's mind that maybe she should've just gone with the faster method, if it's going to go at this speed. Rusting, sanding, waiting, repeating. But, then she remembers why she chose against it.

...

Admittedly, though, Seraphina is glad that Maria already left: since Vlad isn't a librarian (or whatever else it was that caused Seraphina's hunger to peak and arrive a day early, she doesn't know she'll have to figure that out eventually), it's going to be a lot easier for her to keep her head cool during this time. "Huh. That sucks, pay phones are so much more convenient," she claims.

Pay phones more convenient than a cell phone? That's got to be nonsense.

The hotbox definitely confuses Seraphina, though. What is that, some kind of...portable microwave or something? That he keeps his phone inside? She does grab the cell so that it doesn't fall out of his large steel hand, but she says, "Oh, um, I'm not going to call her right now," she says, "so I don't need to borrow your phone."

[Airbase]

"Borrow?" Vlad raises an eyebrow, which isn't exactly a visible gesture from within the confines of his suit. "That won't be necessary. You see-"

Wait. This woman seems just a bit paranoid when it comes to technology. It might be a mistake to go into too much detail about the matter synthesizer he's carrying and how he knows it isn't going to irradiate her or anything.

"...I've got a million of 'em." Vlad simplifies, tucking the phone into her hand. "So you don't need to worry about returning this one. Call her up whenever you're comfortable doing it, and hold onto that so she can call you back."

There's a cool rush of air along Seraphina's arm as the process finally penetrates part of the manacle, leaving a long, thin slit running down the length of her forearm. It shouldn't be too much longer now.

[Reinholdt]

[Maid Café and Book Signing - A Slip Of The Forked Tongue]

"Hmm. That so?" Sure are a lot of possible spies around lately. Well, might as well check it out. The man seemed to be leaving, but Rein couldn't let it be that easy for a fey spy to just slip out of a party. Thinking quick, Rein grabs a book from the supply and lightly chases after Blagtok. He clears his throat. "Ahh! Excuse me sir! I think you forgot your book," Reinholdt says, mostly as an excuse to get ahead of the retreating spy and stand between him and the exit.

[A Singular Hallway]

Well that doesn't explain why the book got lighter all of a sudden. Maybe it was the change in pressure from being too deep? Or maybe Maria needs a snack.
...
She'll skip the snack and head right back to the library, reading the book along the way. And once at the library, start to take notes about the things she's read and what the jackal-headed man had said.

[Maid Café and Book Signing - Catgirls and Eye Candy]

"Except anyone can do magic if they devote themselves to learning it. That's the whole basis behind wizards, right? Study hard enough, learn magic fundamentals. Study too hard, get a massive white beard. You shouldn't already know magic to go to a wizard school." The white beard is a danger that could happen to anyone who overstudies and forgets to party.

Rachel is particularly susceptible to hypnotism, so reading that book definitely would have helped.

[Zefir]

[Maid Café and Book Signing - Catgirls and Eye Candy]

That is so sad and on top of of it the book is right behind the two woman in a bookshelf. Don't be confudsed why there is a bookshelf suddendly. It wasn't there a moment ago but now it is.

"Well that's what i mean." he says. "Magic has strange rules. In some worlds everyone could learn it and in others only selected fews can use it. Like you need a special ability or so for it. But I think technologie got that covered. you can do most of the magic stuff if you got the money. The nexus especially has a larg variety of worlds with different approches to solve that problem.

[Morty]

[Maid Café and Book Signing - A Slip Of The Forked Tongue]

Dorota follows along behind Reinholdt, relieved that he's handling it. He's had all sorts of weird adventures, right? He's obviously more qualified to do it than she is.

[Shadowcaller]

[Of Swords and Dragons]

"I don't see why it wouldn't be." Wenomir swings his sword through the air as if to test it. "If I can do it, so can others. The old masters did such things in the past and taught them to their students. But it wouldn't be easy. And I'd need to spend a long time studying the fundamentals before I could try teaching them."

[Of Swords and Dragons]

"So you can repeat what you did without the thunder being present now then?" Ambrosia inquires. "Since I imagine more than a few of your students would like to see what you just did."

[Magtok]

[Maid Café and Book Signing - A Slip Of The Forked Tongue]

"Hmm. That so?" Sure are a lot of possible spies around lately. Well, might as well check it out. The man seemed to be leaving, but Rein couldn't let it be that easy for a fey spy to just slip out of a party. Thinking quick, Rein grabs a book from the supply and lightly chases after Blagtok. He clears his throat. "Ahh! Excuse me sir! I think you forgot your book," Reinholdt says, mostly as an excuse to get ahead of the retreating spy and stand between him and the exit.

The stranger is certain that Maidholdt will recognize his voice if he hears it, so he has to think fast, has to find some way to resolve this situation like a normal non-fey person would, without saying 'thanks for the book, okay bye' and immediately getting himself tackled by a twink in a dress for ignoring the summons to help HALO with their café project.

"Hrrmtanks," Blagtok answers, coughing into his fist, trying to make his voice sound a bit more gravely and muffled as he reaches a hand out for the book Reinholdt promised. Just gotta collect the book and go. It's still possible to leave this party without incident. Just one short interaction with that rotten cat and we're outta here.

[Morty]

[Of Swords and Dragons]

"I believe so. Of course I'm going to need to practice before showing it to anyone else." That's Wenomir's pride at work again. He won't show off a new martial art unless he's sure it will go well. Especially to his students, as their opinion of him matters a great deal. He makes a few test swings with his sword. "The thunder was an inspiration, not the source."

[Reinholdt]

[Maid Café and Book Signing - A Slip Of The Forked Tongue]

"Oh you're welcome sir," Maidholdt says, starting to give Blagtok his book only to pull it away jusssst at the last second. It was only centimeters away! "Wait a minute. You have that fey, elvish look about you. Can you tell me what you thought of the Banished King? Like, what was your impression of him? We were trying to go for a fey like vibe, only to realize half way through that fey aren't really scary at all! Haha, do you think we nailed it?" Surely if this were a spy for the King in Rags, this underhanded and grating commentary would draw a reaction out of the secret agent.

[Morty]

[Maid Café and Book Signing - A Slip Of The Forked Tongue]

Dorota is doing her best to give an innocent smile from behind Reinholdt. It fails and the smile is distinctly strained.

[Magtok]

[Maid Café and Book Signing - A Slip Of The Forked Tongue]

"Wait a minute. You have that fey, elvish look about you. Can you tell me what you thought of the Banished King? Like, what was your impression of him? We were trying to go for a fey like vibe, only to realize half way through that fey aren't really scary at all! Haha, do you think we nailed it?" Surely if this were a spy for the King in Rags, this underhanded and grating commentary would draw a reaction out of the secret agent.

Blagtok offers a very tired and impatient thumbs up in response, biting back on the urge to take the book and crack the cat's skull with it. Unfortunately the story isn't nearly long enough for that. This is a tale for children, not some massive weighty tome. It would take at least three strikes to satisfactorily bludgeon Maidholdt, and I don't think these two maids would allow that to happen. He could get one, maybe two swings in if he's really lucky, but by then Dorota would get over the initial shock and try to stop him, or the cat would pull out some sort of fae-repelling iron knife and stab him in the wrist.

"They only scare as much as you let them," Blag Magtok says in agreement, the last of the enchantment guarding his face fading out. It's not as though he looked like someone else, or was disguised as some more ordinary-looking human being. All the details were there, but a magical block was in effect to keep the mind from fitting all the pieces together, for the neurons that light up when a familiar face is spotted from lighting up. Now that this selective magical facial agnosia is gone, there is no denying that the Magtok is here, that he's standing right in front of two HALO members, trying to quietly collect his book from the rotten treasure hunter's filthy mitts and leave.

[Thursday Violist]

[Airbase]

"Borrow?" Vlad raises an eyebrow, which isn't exactly a visible gesture from within the confines of his suit. "That won't be necessary. You see-"

Wait. This woman seems just a bit paranoid when it comes to technology. It might be a mistake to go into too much detail about the matter synthesizer he's carrying and how he knows it isn't going to irradiate her or anything.

"...I've got a million of 'em." Vlad simplifies, tucking the phone into her hand. "So you don't need to worry about returning this one. Call her up whenever you're comfortable doing it, and hold onto that so she can call you back."

There's a cool rush of air along Seraphina's arm as the process finally penetrates part of the manacle, leaving a long, thin slit running down the length of her forearm. It shouldn't be too much longer now.

[Airbase]

Seraphina looks at the phone that's suddenly in her hand, trying to figure out how it compares to what she's used to, pushing buttons and checking out jacks and everything. "Huh. Well...let me give you some advice as thanks, then. That many phones is far too many, might want to get rid of a bunch of them," she says.

Unless he's, like, some kind of secret spy and has a bunch of different identities. And all his spare phones are just burner phones or something. But that'd get confusing quick, she thinks.

She runs her tongue across her pointy teeth. And then, once she feels the tiny breeze, she stops looking at the phone and instead looks at the nearly-off manacle. "Oh!" she says. "By the way." If he's some kind of secret spy with a thousand different identities, then of course he'd be the perfect person to ask about this: "Memories. Would you happen to know any places that can help with magically-altered memories? Since I can't actually remember the real reason I came to HALO and there's a lot more oddities where that came from, that seems like the next best thing to look into."

[Maid Café and Book Signing - Catgirls and Eye Candy]

"Except anyone can do magic if they devote themselves to learning it. That's the whole basis behind wizards, right? Study hard enough, learn magic fundamentals. Study too hard, get a massive white beard. You shouldn't already know magic to go to a wizard school." The white beard is a danger that could happen to anyone who overstudies and forgets to party.

Rachel is particularly susceptible to hypnotism, so reading that book definitely would have helped.

[Maid Café and Book Signing - Catgirls and Eye Candy]

That is so sad and on top of of it the book is right behind the two woman in a bookshelf. Don't be confudsed why there is a bookshelf suddendly. It wasn't there a moment ago but now it is.

"Well that's what i mean." he says. "Magic has strange rules. In some worlds everyone could learn it and in others only selected fews can use it. Like you need a special ability or so for it. But I think technologie got that covered. you can do most of the magic stuff if you got the money. The nexus especially has a larg variety of worlds with different approches to solve that problem.

[Maid Café and Book Signing - Catgirls and Eye Candy]

"Ooh, wow, I definitely don't want a giant white beard," June claims. "Gotta make sure to not study too much magic, then. Sounds like a pretty big danger."

June turns around and glances at the bookshelf.
"My guess is the hardest part about magic is doing it for the first time," she says, "After you get over that first hump it becomes easier."

[Shadowcaller]

[Maid Café and Book Signing]

The balding man pushes his book in front to be done first. Compared to the other one, it's much more standard-looking, but still definitely home-made. "Oh, you don't have to know my name to -" he says, before he's cut off by the woman with the dyed-blonde hair.

"Oh, get off your high horse, stop acting like you're cool," she says. She jabs her thumb into his shoulder, and says, "He's Scorpio Albertus, I'm Suzana Melano. Feel free to call him lame when you sign it, he likes that sort of stuff."

The guy glares at the blonde woman. That's clearly not true. Instead of correcting her, however, he retorts, "When you sign hers, she'd love it if you signed it 'Angela' instead of anything else."

[Maid Café and Book Signing]

'Jane' opens her mouth as the balding man pushes his book up but don't even get a word in before she's too cut off by the blonde woman.
Not sure how to handle it she simply watch them bicker. Her small smile looking increasingly forced.
"...alright. But I was actually asking if I was signing this for you or your kids." 'Jane' can finally clarify once she's sure she isn't going to get cut off again.
Her gaze moves between them. "I assume these copies are for yourself then?" She opens the man's copy and casually flips through the pages. Trying to figure out why this one looked so different from the others.

[Of Swords and Dragons]

"Hm." Ambrosia's tome scribes down her thoughts on the matter, but all Wenomir get is a sound.
"But it probably isn't the first time you've heard thunder since you mastered the sword. So what do you think triggered it in this particular instant? Or back in VIGIL for that matter?"

[Reinholdt]

[Maid Café and Book Signing - A Slip Of The Forked Tongue]

Reinholdt opens his mouth to say something more but pauses suddenly and blinks a few times. Did... did the fey just take on the appearance of his worst enemy? After a little too long to recover, Rein puts the book in Magtok's hand, but keeps holding onto it tightly.

"Well. Well. Well. You did receive my singing telegrams." All 29 of them! Magtok had to be informed about the event and Rein's expectations for him after all.

[Maid Café and Book Signing - Catgirls and Eye Candy]

"Like riding a bike, sure." Rachel glances at the bookshelf to see if there's anything interesting on it, but she suspects none of it is particularly her type of book. "Are you saying you're rich and just enjoy pretending to be a maid?"

Rachel finishes off her tea and starts to get up. "Speaking of, I should probably get my stuff back so I can at least take pictures outside. Maybe I can turn it into a cosplay in the forest day on twitagram."

[Zefir]

[Maid Café and Book Signing - Catgirls and Eye Candy]

Well now that Rachel mentions it there are some different books. Like the Calculations of something called "Any Size Hotel", a Diary "My life as a stuff animal", "Why do we need pants" and some books about making your own clothes. Strangly enoougth the titels just appeared after she thought nothing of intrest is there. Mr. C also sees this change and gets some worried looks at it. Some of those books are not public.

"In a way. Let's say I don't need to work as a butler to live." he says. "There are as many ways of magic as you think of, i guess. And also so many dangers if you don't know what you do."

Mr. C can't keep her here when Rachel decides to leave. "Good luck with your project."

[Morty]

[Maid Café and Book Signing - A Slip Of The Forked Tongue]

Dorota looks between Reinholdt and Magtok. Her conclusions run along similar lines to Reinholdt's; the possible fey infiltrator has taken on Magtok's form. Possibly to sow confusion in HALO.

"I was wondering who we were sending those to..." she says, for lack of any other ideas.

[Of Swords and Dragons]

"In Vigil, it was the King in Rags' influence. He was forcing both of us into a particular role." Wenomir has had time to think about this. As for this attempt... "It might be because this time I listened to the thunder and tried to replicate it. I never considered the possibility before."

[Shadowcaller]

[Of Swords and Dragons]

"So you're saying that in a way the 'King' inadvertently triggered you taking your martial art to new level? Seems almost poetic." Especially considering that while it didn't make Wenomir into the warrior god the "King" seemed to hate it make him more of his equal in martial prowess.

"But it brings us all the way back to the topic of how to deal with him. Since that's why were here in the first place." Ambrosia points out.

[Morty]

[Of Swords and Dragons]

"From what I know of the Gentry, he might appreciate seeing his enemies grow stronger. A great king must have great foes." Wenomir gives a crooked smile. "But as I think I've said, I doubt my sword is what we need to kill the King in Rags for good. How do you kill an idea? The legends of my homeland aren't much help here. They talk of heroes fighting the Gentry, outwitting them, foiling their plans... never killing."

[Shadowcaller]

[Of Swords and Dragons]

Ambrosia was almost going to add "or eating" but giving it a moment of thought she decided that she rather not share what she had attempted to do.

"As I said, HALO does have a plan regarding that. You might be familiar with the expression how the pen is mightier than the sword?" Ambrosia did tell Wenomir about their plans earlier. "But I do believe an event. Something to show his lack of power. Of authority. I understand that there was an event like that in the past? I've done at least some research on him."

[Morty]

[Of Swords and Dragons]

"Yes, you've mentioned your plan. I think it can work. HALO might be better suited to foiling the King in the long term than we are." Wenomir's prideful but not enough to deny that. "An event... supposedly, he was betrayed and cast down this way, but it happened so long ago that separating truth from fiction is impossible."