[PRP] Southern Gentleman'd (Beaubelloni & Renard)

[shibrogane]

"The easiest way would involve removing her arm at the shoulder, and taking the blade of it," said Renard. "From there it would be simple to pulverize the bone. Healing magic could be used to regrow it, but it is a taboo; it may be easier to simply create a magical construct to allow her to live as she was. So that is one option--"

He broke off as Sonny peeked back in. "Lunch is ready," they said, "Does everybody like fish?" Without waiting for an answer, they darted away, back to the kitchen, and then popped back up. "So this is mango and black rice and oranges and--"

Renard waited for Sonny to finish listing ingredients. The rice salad, the miso-glazed salmon kabobs, and green beans took up their places on the table in their trays and bowls, and Sonny joined them. "As I was saying. It also may be possible to simply grind the sigil out of her bones, or to fill it in; but you would have to create a magical epoxy to accomplish such a thing, and you would have to be confident. Such a thing isn't easy to test, especially when it requires living bone." He waited for his guests to serve themselves, unfolding his napkin and laying it over his lap.

Sonny said, "It's a good thing you came to Father, though. He's the best at medical magic."

Melancholies

The Semblance of Unity

saedusk

 

[Melancholies]

Well.

Oliver was rather silent as Renard spoke. He decided to take it upon himself to begin serving (it was something for his hands to do, thank god). "This all looks really good, Sonny." He gave her a small, genuine smile. Hopefully everyone here liked fish. He liked fish. He started with the rice salad, passed it to the side, then the green beans, the kabobs...

He spoke as he went, "Removing her entire arm sounds... gruesome." And also didn't constitute anything remotely close to what he wanted as a lunch topic. "insofar as taboo goes, I'm sure fussing around with the sigil already compromises a number of morals, so if it's possible to successfully replace it then I see no problems with it." He cleared his throat, "I mean, provided we're absolutely sure in what we're doing. I'm assuming medicine and magic are consider taboo to mix for a reason." There hadn't been known magic in his world, so what did he know?

"Regardless." He gently lifted his fork, "I mean, every option sounds viable and something I'd be willing to explore." He looked towards Horace and Elliot, "We'd have to pose the idea to Melany anyway, so it's best that we have multiple choices." What do you guys think?

shibrogane

The Semblance of Unity

saedusk

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

Amputation, essentially. An epoxy might be better, but also hinder her movement... Horace frowned and poured himself some tea.

"Thank you, Sonny." He smiled as Oliver began to pass things around. "Either of those solutions sound workable, although I'm leaning towards the removal. We're not quite sure how deep into her bone the sigil was carved or if it potentially reached the marrow. It's like a cancer and I'm afraid of not getting it all out." He passed the food along as well.

"She also currently has a lock in place over the sigil, so we will have to work with that in place or the Spinel Lady might make an appearance. Regardless, of that, how do we destroy the components, once removed? We need not even dust to remain, right?"

saedusk

melancholies

shibrogane

 

[saedusk]

It wasn't until after the food was served and everyone else had said their piece that Elliot spoke again. "This is divine," he said post-generous bite of food. Renard had mentioned Sonny enjoyed cooking, but he hadn't elaborated on how skilled they were. "Thank you for the hospitality." He took a drink of tea and looked ever so pleased.

"Honestly, the removal sounds like the safest bet to me. If we don't want a chance it all backfires in our face once we're down to the wire, that is." He turned his full attention to Renard. "Mr. Leroux, are you positive it's possible to regrow her arm or create a completely functional—what was it—magical construct without any unfortunate side effects?"

Either way, Eli was still feeling that over their other options.

"If that's the case, I believe we'd have better luck eliminating every trace of the thing without harming Melany in the process."

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Melancholies

The Semblance of Unity

shibrogane

 

[shibrogane]

"Oh, that's easy," said Sonny, "You just nuke it. Make a little protective barrier and then, boom." They gestured. Apparently you fired a nuke like a gun, trigger pulling and all.

Renard said, "Not everyone is as talented as you, Ascencion. The magic doesn't fill in the blanks for them." It was a gentle remonstration, and Sonny took it as such, flashing a white smile at the table group. "She is correct, in essence if not in specifics. The destruction of the paper down to ash isn't the difficult part. Mr. Nokoni is correct in that if they carved it down to her marrow, we may have to be a great deal more stringent. I can give you a spell to check that, provided she's willing to surrender a drop of her blood."

He folded his hands for a moment, eyeballing his plate like he had nothing better to look at. "The lock will need to be removed in order to eradicate all traces of the sigil," he said. "As for regrowth or replacement; I am reasonably confident. Enough that I would recommend it if it were Ascencion. But nothing is guaranteed with magic."

Sonny said, "There's a lot of historical methods of casting destructive spells you could check. Um, salting something and burning it with sage is a really obvious one, but you might want something more surefire."

Melancholies

The Semblance of Unity

saedusk

 

[Melancholies]

I can't believe we're going to lob her arm off... Oliver was watching his food, but he was looking increasingly disturbed. He wasn't sure he had it in him to do that, but he supposed they'd have other people on their side... even then it wasn't just lobbing an arm off, it was removing the shoulder too. Wouldn't that be excruciating?

And this was all assuming it was in the bone, not the marrow.

"I'm rather disgusted someone decided to do this in the first place..." He said quietly, more as a personal comment than anything to contribute to the conversation at hand. He took a bite of his food finally, standing with a chunk of the glazed salmon, and his eyes melted into something more relaxed.

"Do you have any resources for these destructive spells? Textbooks perhaps?" Salt and sage might be simple enough for something like the document, but he was weary about applying that practice to an entire arm. "If we do end up removing the arm, we should look into proper... procedures for that as well." He tried not to make a face, but grimaced a little regardless.

"This food is really good by the way." He gave Sonny a smile as he ate. "You'll have to share the recipe for this rice salad, it's so refreshing..." He speared a slice of the mango eagerly. Anything to keep from thinking about shoulder tendons.

shibrogane

saedusk

The Semblance of Unity

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

When it's a limb or it's death - it suddenly doesn't sound so bad, you know?

"I'm sure I can ask her for a drop of blood. The lock... we will be able to use anesthetic during this procedure, right? Will you help us during? We should probably gather as many medically inclined magical people as possible..." Horace didn't really trust himself sawing off a person's arm. Well, he could do it, but he wouldn't be sure he wasn't irrevocably damaging muscles.

"Beyond ash, Mr. Leroux - so that no trace of it exists." He took a sip of his tea. "Salting and burning is a good idea, but only if we ramp it up. It's a shame Mount Doom only exists in Tolkein's world." Ashdown especially didn't have any volcanoes. He wondered, briefly, if shoving the charter ash back to whatever world Oliver had popped out of would work. Probably not.

"I'm afraid we're all pretty green at this kind of thing," he said wryly. Green, greener, greenest.

saedusk

melancholies

shibrogane

 

[saedusk]

That seemed to have Elliot satisfied, the answer about the replacement. If Renard would recommend it on his own daughter, then the pros likely outweighed the cons by some vast amount. Funnily enough, he seemed to eat his meal as if they were talking about a regular old medical amputation. It was to save Melany's life after all, wasn't it?

"It seems to me we best get Melany's agreement posthaste, then. Start with having her tested via Mr. Leroux's method so we can truly know what we're dealing with here."

If the amputation didn't bother him, this part is what did. The corners of his mouth wrinkled in distaste. Carving things into innocent people's bones... what sort of depravity would drive someone to a sin like that? It was disgusting.

"Then we need to decide on the best course of action for eliminating bone and paper entirely." It really was too bad they had no volcanos here. "Research materials would be very helpful, unless you already have an idea of the best method?"

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Melancholies

The Semblance of Unity

shibrogane

 

[shibrogane]

Renard said, "There's a doctor I know who is familiar with medical magic." It sounded like the words were being dragged out of him. "In fact, I believe you've already met him, Mr. Nokoni. His name is Nicholas Wellington. He's a trauma surgeon by training, so he would be quite able to excise the sigil. If you cannot find a Visitor to do it, I'll reach out to him."

Sonny watched their father with big eyes. They were an odd mix of colors: mostly bluish-violet, with large motes of an icy green. They didn't look normal. Sonny didn't look normal. "Sure," they said. "The library's got a bunch of stuff. You can use it if you want, right Father?"

"Of course," said Renard. "Our library is open to the three of you."

Sonny grinned at Oliver. "Yeah, of course I'll share it. I'm really glad you like it. I never get to cook for anyone but me and Father, since Papa went missing. Father isn't very social."

Renard looked slightly aggrieved.

melancholies

The Semblance of Unity

saedusk

 

[Melancholies]

Oliver caught wind of Renard's hesitance, the look on his face when Sonny spoke. Damage control time, maybe, "But we're all sitting here socializing now, aren't we? It isn't as if it'll be the last time." Not to mention the fact Oliver was over every Wednesday, even if he didn't spend as much time with Sonny as he did with Renard. "I do appreciate you giving us this resource Mr. Leroux. If magic is as taboo as you say it is, then I promise we'll keep it secret."

That being said, he had no idea where to look as far as the visitors in question were concerned.

"I suppose the only lasting question would be a way to test our method." He took the folded up napkin to set it on his lap, sorry Sonny, it was pretty. "Do you know of any way to procure a similarly indestructible item? You've been such a tremendous help as is, so I'm not necessarily asking if you have anything like that in your possession." He was cutting into a piece of salmon, "But if there's any way to... locate such an item, or to create a prototype for the purpose of the experiment? We're supposedly destroying the old charter while we create the new one to make the swap as seamless as possible, so we can't necessarily use that." He clicked his tongue against his teeth in thought, "Unless we could use a piece of it without damaging the initial integrity of the document..."

He hated stumbling around so blindly when someone's life was in question.

shibrogane

The Semblance of Unity

saedusk

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

Horace choked briefly on a piece of fish, coughing rather inelegantly. "Ah, um, yes, I remember Dr. Wellington. N-nice gentleman." Sexknives. "I am sure there are medically minded visitors as well. In fact, I'm sure there are, even if they are just students." He couldn't remember exactly who, but that a couple of them were blonde... maybe? Horace frowned slightly. The question remained whether they should trust students. Maybe he'd ask Shiloh... or...

Ollie, can you ask Shiloh about visitors with medical leanings?

After taking a moment, he turned slightly towards Sonny. "You don't hold any dinner parties of your own? If you ever did a potluck, I'd bring dessert. I'm kind of hopeless in the kitchen, otherwise." Oliver had the right idea with another sort of testable object. And Eli was on point about researching methods. He rolled his shoulders. See, you guys make a good team.

saedusk

melancholies

shibrogane

 

[saedusk]

"Honestly, darling," Eli said, looking at Sonny. "I would love to come back anytime, your cooking is divine." Then he laughed, light and loose and carefree. "But where are my manners, I can't simply go around inviting myself." There was a definite departure from the stiffer, more cautious approach he'd been using earlier now that he'd had a moment to gauge the situation. Sonny, at least, seemed playful enough.

"After our meal, would you mind showing me the library?" he requested. "Oh, and Oliver's got something with that. We really can't afford to be wrong when the time finally comes."

Then he turned to Horace, giving him the best supportive sort of smile he could manage. It sure was inconvenient being the only member of their ragtag band without the ability to mentally communicate. They were all a team, all three of them, and that's how they'd have to play it if they wanted to accomplish anything.

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Melancholies

The Semblance of Unity

shibrogane

 

[shibrogane]

Sonny sniffed. "Father is shy," they said. "But if you want, you can come over for dinner whenever, just call ahead, okay? I'm home alone a lot and I'd like a reason to cook."

Renard sighed. "Yes, I know where to acquire such a thing. I'll send it home with you. It's a fragment of a magical stone; it's stood up to all of my attempts to destroy it."

Sonny glanced at Renard, seeming concerned by his sigh. "I'm not allowed to," they said. "Papa and Father had to make a deal with the police to let me even stay in the town. They wanted to take me away. So I don't really have many friends to have dinner parties with, and even if I did, it's not like... it attracts bad attention to people.

"I can show you the library after, yeah."

Melancholies

The Semblance of Unity

saedusk

 

[Melancholies]

Well, Oliver supposed that was that. "I appreciate it, thank you so much." He flashed a smile to Renard and then to Sonny, but it was evident that he was eager to get the conversation topic minimized. "I believe that covers most of our bases then."

He turned to the others, "If you two don't have any other questions...?"

...............You can't? I mean, yeah. I can...

shibrogane

The Semblance of Unity

saedusk

 

[The Semblance of Unity]

Does this have to do with you ignoring your phone? I mean, I can ask if you need me to. Horace could hear the pauses, the ellipses of hesitation and he wondered what the hell Shiloh had done. Let me know, okay? He didn't mind, if Ollie wasn't up to it, although he was horribly, horribly curious.

He did shoot Eli a smile back, even though he could feel nerves crawling up his back. He'd done quite well suppressing them thus far, but, unlike Oliver, who had nerves most at the beginning, Horace's tended to start off very small and grow. It was super childish, but he kind of wanted to hold someone's hand.

"Well, Sonny, I'm glad you cooked for us, thank you. And if you don't mind, I'd definitely be down for a recipe swap." The police taking her away sounded so ominous. "Mr. Leroux, thank you again for inviting us. You're provided some excellent insights. It's made me kind of hopeful." He rubbed his cheek self-consciously. Library research, hmm.

saedusk

melancholies

shibrogane