somebadnews: (183)
Number FIVE ☂ ([personal profile] somebadnews) wrote in [community profile] westwhere2021-05-22 06:37 pm

tell me all about your problems

WHO: Five, Alina, their guest of honor + OPEN to anyone who wants it feel free to discuss
WHEN: hours after the Unhalad/Anurr conflict while they're busy with the "rescued" (extreme judge-y quotation marks) miners
WHERE: one of the bathing rooms in ye ol' cursed farmhouse
WHAT: Five kidnaps a forest person, Alina joins in and they play 20 questions, Five loses his temper and yadda yadda it's a situation
WARNINGS: here be a hostage, possible violence(??), definite language... less so because Alina wanted to be a good cop so thank her



For someone who spent years (decades) working on an equation to bring him home, Five has surprisingly little patience. He's spent the last few hours pacing the room where he took the old man, his frustration growing by the second since he started to relent to the woman who inserted herself into the situation. Maybe he should feel lucky that it was only one, considering he decided to do this inside the farmhouse, but thankfully the rest of their merry band seemed to be preoccupied. He can't imagine how much slower this could possibly go if word spread to the others.

Alina insists on treating their guest with kindness, coaxing answers from him instead of letting him handle this on his own. It doesn't take long to escape him that he only seems to respond to her. And is that really surprising when he's restrained himself from appearing as the threat he is?

What they manage to pry out of him is deceptively vague, and only reaffirms some of his assumptions. Anurr's followers are essentially a cult of worshippers. They only seem to have hostility towards them because they've taken up residence in this old building, which is what they get for following Haltham. And the wolves and voices terrorizing them are simply the wind.

It's the mocking smirk that finally breaks him.

"Is that all?" His head jerks up from where he's been listening from the other side of the room, and he barks out a laugh as he breaks into a wide, incredulous smile. This asshole. Then he shakes his head and stares at the ceiling, feeling that building frustration boil over.

"This is waste of time," he tells her, pointing as he paces back to the man tied to the chair. It's with restraint that he doesn't grab him by the throat and throttle him right then and there. "He wants to be avenged so badly, let him! I'll grab a sword and we'll give them a reason."
foxable: (magic hands)

[personal profile] foxable 2021-06-09 02:48 pm (UTC)(link)
Fox simply nodded to the first part. He didn't have a real idea of just how powerful Vanya's abilities were, or he would look more horrified when he nodded in agreement.

"Her. But, she should be able to set it up in advance. I don't think it would be useful if anyone else had control over it - she's the one who can react the fastest. But I think - Well, I'd have to test it, but I think, for example, if she kept a low level anchor to it most of the time - like when she was talking, or humming, for example - that the link would keep even if she was no longer concentrating on it. But to be the most effective, she would have to focus - haha, sorry, pun not intended - focus on it directly."

He looked up and gave Five a shrug.

"This is all kind of new ground for me, and while I think the theory is solid, testing is the only way to verify its use. I don't think we'd need to do anything stronger than what she already does with her violin, though. Not when --" He paused, then gave Five a sympathetic wince. "I mean, with where we are, and our luck, there's a good chance that shit is going to go down whether we want it to or not. There are other power modulation techniques for spells, of course, but this is by far the safest mechanism for it, especially since as far as I understand, she can't cast magic herself." A pause, a frown, then a thoughtful raised eyebrow.

"Yet, anyway. I haven't been working on that with anyone other than Eleven, so far, but - I could try teaching you guys? You might not have it at home, but that doesn't mean you can't use magic here."