a heavy rain falls

[foxable]

WHO: Fox and OPEN
WHEN: Catch-all for July
WHERE: On the Journey to Taravast
WHAT: Tattoos, magic, chatting - whatever your heart desires
WARNINGS: will add if they come up



Fox spends a lot of his time bothering Karsa, trying to learn as much as he can from her despite her tightened guard. The magic here is different, and it's taking a frustratingly long time to parse it, but he's starting to at least be able to grasp the edges of it. She shows him what runes to use for the spell he offered, and that tiny clue is what he clutches as he works into the night.

He has a bad habit of not watching where he's walking, lost in thought as he scribbles in a little notebook that he bought before they left Sa-Hareth. It isn't ideal. It's too small, his thoughts too big - the almost seem to tumble off the pages as he hastily scribbles. But then he also nearly walks off the edge of the narrow stairs... Hopefully someone is around to catch him.

He's more subdued than he was, before the siege, though when he realizes he's being watched he does his best to keep up his usual cheerful demeanor. This had all felt a little like a game, at first. A dangerous game, but still a game. A puzzle for him to figure out how to solve, one in a long line of many. Now, he's not so sure.

Now, he's worried that neither this world or himself will come out the same now that he's in it.

[ ooc: feel free to make your own prompts, or hit me up and ask me to write you one in particular! ]

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[foxable]

"Well, everything, I hope," He answers easily, thumbing through his notebook again as they walk. Hope you're paying attention to the road, Five, because it has been almost two minutes and Fox is already distracted again.

"The most useful thralling that we've seen so far is the communication network that they have between quartz. I want to figure out if - well, if I can piggy-back on those enchantments. Or if I can use thralling to trigger magic at further distances. Or if I can use it to boost the power of my own spells. But first and foremost I think it's important for us to be able to talk to each other without anyone listening in." He glances up, then, and back, just to make sure none of the rest of the caravan were in earshot, and then he drops his voice.

"Not that I don't think these people honestly want to help us, but... We're going somewhere where we have to pretend we're working against each other, right? We need secure lines of communication that we know are secure."

[somebadnews]

Five is indeed keeping an eye on the edge of that cliff, subtly glancing to the side as he starts to walk again. Then, thinking better of it, he moves to step to the outer edge of him just in case this turns into one of his more longwinded explanations and he forgets the warning said moments ago. Truthfully, part of him envies how he's able to block out everything; Five hasn't been nearly as successful since the caravan started.

Longwinded turns out to be right, but in this case, he's tolerant because he's interested in what he has to say. Once he gets a better sense of his use of the word, he has to wonder again why Karsa would even choose to point him in the right direction. From what he knows of Fox, that's a slippery slope, and he doesn't doubt he'll keep at it until he figures it out. At least, that's what Five would do in his position. So why does it benefit her to trust them?

He doesn't muse on that very long when Fox lowers his voice. His expression is enough to reveal what he thinks about giving them the benefit of the doubt for wanting to help them, and his eyes narrow further when he reveals why he's interested in a secure line of communication.

"That would be ideal," he says slowly. Of course, that would only be trusting someone else with the same issue. Unless he can understand how the magic works, he'd be accepting what he's told on blind faith. "How close are you to being able to test it?"