ic contact;

[originallutece]

Text | Voice | Video | Action

Comments

[originallutece]

Kurama, if you don't understand why a grown woman is uncomfortable with hearing that a sixteen year old boy can break into her apartment anytime he pleases, anything I say will hardly enlighten you now.

More importantly: I've need because a thief broke in, of course. Or rather: an animal, working on behalf of a thief. I believe I've reached an accord with him, but he was also unbearably smug, and I'd rather not be in the position where I have to bargain for my own products again.

[roseblooms]

Rosalind, I would hope that I've sufficiently demonstrated by now that I have nothing but the highest regard for you, and would sooner cut off one of my own hands than insult you in the manner I believe you're insinuating.

...

A thief, is it. Well, well. I'm sure I can think of a few surprises he might find himself on the wrong end of, should he make the mistake of trying that again...

[originallutece]

[Of course he has, which is why she's joking about it in the first place. Had she truly been threatened, she'd be sitting in a chair with a shotgun to the door, not texting him cheerfully.]

That's rather what I hoped for. The ojigi did try its best, but the blasted thing was too quick for it. Beyond traps, though, I was hoping you could look around and give me a few tips on improving things, beyond the obvious advice of investing in a better lock for my windows and doors.

[roseblooms]

How do you feel about the topic of wards? Given the scientific wonders you already have at your intellectual disposal, I'm not certain if that's something already in your realm of expertise, or if I'm making a novel suggestion.

But I do recall that one of the most difficult things to bypass, in my experience, is a solid, reliable ward — because it disrupts more than one advantage that a thief tends to have in his toolbox. Typically it's a combination of three, that it will attack: movement, power, and silence.

[originallutece]

Something demonic, do you mean? I could set up an alarm perimeter, but it would take some time to develop. If you've something more [she hesitates, and then finally:] more unusual in mind, I'd be glad to hear of it.

[A memory stirs, then, and she adds:]

Of course, the electric one I caught you with seemed to serve me well.

[roseblooms]

...That one. Yes — was that, er...only a part of the fantasy we both lived? Or was that something you've really come up with before?

Wards aren't uncommon in Makai, but as far as I know they're only useful against demons. They're attuned to our energy, for one thing. Some are even powerful enough to disrupt —

...

This may end up turning into a longer story than I'd intended, if you allow me to launch into that segue. We'll almost certainly get off-topic; is that acceptable?

[originallutece]

It's something I've thought about, though never actually devoted time or energy to. That being said: though eventually I would like you to come over and give me a hand in thief-proofing the place, by all means. I'd be fascinated to hear more of Makai.

[roseblooms]

Perhaps that should be your plan of attack, then. I'll help secure the premises in the short-term, but for the long-term, your own inventions might outdo anything that I would come up with.

What I had been about to say is, some wards are even powerful enough to disrupt the Jagan Eye. But then I realized that I would need to explain what the Jagan Eye is, to begin with.

[originallutece]

[He's likely right, especially given the thieves of choice are raptors. Quick, yes, deadly, most certainly, but nothing a short sharp shock oughtn't take care of. Rosalind scrawls a note to herself and then writes:]

And what, precisely, is the Jagan Eye?

[roseblooms]

An implant, of sorts. A third eye, surgically implanted into the center of the forehead, which eventually grows to become a part of its user in a sort of symbiotic relationship. Having it implanted affords its user a vast array of psychic powers — telepathy, telekinesis, mind control, extraordinary mental shielding and resistance. And, pertinent to the discussion, remote viewing and tracking — clairvoyance, of sorts.

It's extraordinarily powerful. But there are wards capable of disrupting it.

[originallutece]

Sorry, do you have one?

[roseblooms]

No, but I know someone who does.

...The human boy in true love with the demon girl, whose twin brother didn't approve of the match? The brother has the Jagan. As far as I know, he sought it specifically to be able to keep tabs on his sister from afar.

[originallutece]

Taking "disapproval" to an entirely new level.

How would a ward disrupt such a thing?

[roseblooms]

His concerns aren't entirely unfounded. She has certain capabilities that make her extraordinarily valuable to unscrupulous humans, should they happen to get their hands on her.

And: by behaving like a jamming signal. Searching for a unique energy signature could be rendered fruitless if that signature is concealed behind a barrier wall of disruptive wards.

[originallutece]

Capabilities such as what?

And what would happen if he tried to pass by the wards? Would they repel him, or simply act like a distortion signal to a bat: that is, he'd grow disoriented and unable to focus any of his abilities?

[roseblooms]

She cries priceless gems — the sort that, sold on the black market, could make a given human extraordinarily rich extraordinarily quickly. Being aware of this, she was reluctant to cry for any reason. Perhaps unsurprisingly, her captors resorted to some particularly ugly forms of coercion in their attempts to force her tears.

He would be repelled, burned, shocked, or some mixture of the three. A painful discovery, no matter the outcome.

[originallutece]

There was a fairy story I was told, once, when I was a child. It had a girl who was kind, and so was blessed with a gift like that: the ability to produce priceless gems whenever she spoke. It being a fairy story, it all ended in marriage and true love, but I'd always thought it would be an awful curse.

[There's a difference, she notices. If, he'd said a moment ago. If some unscrupulous humans should get their hands on her; now it's when.

No wonder her brother had gotten such a surgery.]

Did her captors use such wards against him?

[roseblooms]

Woe betide her if she happened to talk in her sleep, I should think.

In a sense. Their wards served a dual purpose — making it difficult for anyone on the outside to find her, and making it impossible for her to escape the confinement they'd put her in.

They certainly used them against her. I saw the burns firsthand.

[originallutece]

I assume she was rescued?

[roseblooms]

I'll give you three guesses who was sent after her, as a matter of fact.

[originallutece]

[It's difficult to think of Urameshi doing such a thing, frankly. It isn't that she doubts his moral character so much as his physical ability: he looks like any other teenager, and how on earth could any teenager do such a thing?

But he had. And he'd defeated the Adh Seid-- he'd vaporized it, in fact. So clearly there's far more to Urameshi than meets the eye.]

As if I've ever needed three. Though I'd be interested in hearing the specifics of that tale.

[roseblooms]

As stories go, that one is fairly straightforward, actually. It's what we were doing immediately before we were both plucked up and brought here.

[Ah. Hmmm.]

It's also why I was...I suppose you might say a bit resigned, when Yusuke arrived here about a month after I did. I'd thought that he was here to collect me for violating my parole, and consequently wasn't precisely sure what ratio of "friend" to "detective" I was facing.

[originallutece]

Well. I'm glad it turned out for the best (although I think even if he had come here as detective, it would have soon evolved into purely friend: it isn't as if he could somehow take you back or arrest you).

Do you imagine

[--? Imagine what? But there's nothing else written, and Rosalind doesn't add anything, not for a long minute. Then, suddenly and frantically:]

i need you to come down to the emporium right now please

[roseblooms]

Rosalind??

[That's the message that she gets sent during the space of that long minute, when only half a sentence arrives and then the rest of it is conspicuously blank.

Where is she? Where had she been? Bouquets, she'd been at her house — no, the ojigi is there, it would attack if something had got in, but then what could —

...Oh.

Oh, she's at the Emporium, and he's buzzing with all his nerves alight, winding back down from the beginnings of a heart attack.]

Are you in danger?

[originallutece]

no
but i need you to come RIGHT NOW

[She's being stupid, she knows, but she doesn't dare take her eyes off the item that's caught her attention. She doesn't dare move an inch, though she knows it's overwhelmingly likely the item won't vanish.]