Dec 30 05:33:51 107 PA - The Flock Grows

From Chronicles

Vargus is standing off to one side of the gate, over the remains of a tattered sign. He retracts the claws back into his forearm housing, then bends down to pick up the pieces. He crumples them up, and stuffs them into a pocket of his jacket. He then blinks. "Oh... oops." and reaches into a modest sack at his belt and pulls out a rather large leather overcoat, which has no business being in a bag that small, and throws it on over his shoulders. He then afixes a KDPD badge to the front, and sighs slightly.

Leonard arrives from the exterior of the city, garbed in appropriate protection that also conveniently keeps out the cold. His helm is off, probably more due to his passage through the checkpoint than for comfort. He nods greetings to Vargus, but arches a brow at the shredded paper. "Janitorial duty, today?" Vargus chuckles at Leonard, "Just a strange sign... not a whole lot of information on it, and if taken the wrong way could start a panic in the city. Dragons running around in the woods... like they have nothing better to do then run around in THESE woods?." He shrugs his shoulders. "Long time no see, eh? How 'ya been?"

While Johnson's is firmly affixed, holding a tight seal against the poisons in the Earthly air. He appears to be on his way back out, into the wilderness. "Effective," comes his mechanical voice, speaking from a box on his chest. "But late. Fly now rumor on winged feet." He's midway through a flapping motion with his hands, as if launching the message deep into the city. "Shield on chest. Small. Protects most soft spot?"

"Ah..." Leonard nods with understanding. "That the creature is, indeed, a dragon is speculation, anyhow. A possibility, but an uncomfirmed guess. There are much less, or more, worrisome possibilities for its nature."

Vargus looks to Johnson and grins, then shakes his head. "Shield is a symbol. I'm a new officer in the Kingsdale police force." He looks back to Leonard, "I hadn't heard about a creature running around... will have to check in and update my news files, been out wandering of late." he gestures back toward the woods. "Leonard, this is Silas Johnson. Silas, Leonard... I think he'd be interested in high-noon-sun tomorrow." He looks back to Leonard. "He's trying to get a small mage cabal going. Wasn't many of us that were interested last time, maybe this time it'll take."

"You, police?" Johnson wonders flatly, hands motioning over his cheat before expanding. His translator squake, late, "Should get bigger shield." He looks between the two, and his chest speaks again, "Mage-from-books? Good, but I don't know if I can teach two at once. Maybe, you need friend? Then we rotate?" The helmet turns from one of them, to the other, and then pokes at his chest. "Johnson, Johnson name."

Vargus's wrist comp chimes softly, and he pulls the screen up to peer at it. "Ahh, need to head to headquarters... I'll catch up with you two tomorrow... high noon, right?" The last directed to Johnson. He gives a wave and heads into the city.

Leonard looks from Vargus to the enclosed man. "A cabal? Interesting. There are few wishing to align, much less share knowledge, unfortunately..." A parting wave to Vargus, and then he is back to Johnson. "I'm in no great hurry for tutelage, though I might well be interested."

Johnson waves at Vargus. Highest-sun-noon. Here." He watches the man go, and leans aside. "Maybe, small shield magic?" he asks. "Makes enemies hit it? Inefficient." He nods once. "Should be bigger." His helmeted head watches the gates for a beat, before he turns back towards Leonard. "Don't know word, 'cable.' Know word, 'school.' We teach. I teach, Vargus teach, maybe you teach? Everyone learn, nobody pay, make small people big."

"I could teach," Leonard nods, "and exchange. Defense is always important, though I don't think I've need of that particular conjuration. Is the idea of this ...school what brought you to Kingsdale? I don't recall having seen you before, though I /have/ been here and there, in and out, so to speak."

Johnson waves East, then South, "Dangerous East," and West, "dead in the South," and North, "nobody West," and his arm drops, "North is too cold. This is middle place. Collects many people. Some place, I am big person. Here I am small person. Need school. No school here. School need me."

Leonard shrugs his shoulders and smirks. "It's true that there isn't much to find that's pleasant, in any direction. There is a school here, of sorts, but it is rather ...exclusive. One nearly has to prove it isn't needed to be admitted."

Johnson nods, and holds a hand up to head-level, then down to shoulder level, before his translator speaks up. "That school like university, I need primary school." And his hand drops down to waist level, adding, "Maybe, pre-school. His head swings up, a finger wagging, and the translator speaks. "I take moon cycle, two? To learn spell from book. It take maybe three days to learn from person. No research. Less experiment. Everyone learn from book, but everyone learn different spell, not do same work five times."

"Indeed." Leonard nods in agreement. "Thus my suggestion of exchange. It's much easier to learn from another, even if just from their notations and explanations. Do you have any specific interests?" He and the armored Johnson converse just inside the gates, he having come from outside while Johnson appears to have been headed out.

From the northwest, moving slowly but deliberately out of the direction of the forest, perhaps if one were to make a bee-line toward Laramy, comes Gabriel. His face is happy enough, his steps secure. Of course, that's pretty much how he always looks. He wears no apparent winter clothing, so for the moment, his dark fabric sticks out like a pile of coal in the white snow. Sure, some of the drifts are higher than his knees, but it doesn't seem to deter him as he makes his way through various pulsing amounts of outgoing and incoming city traffic.

Apparently, the cold doesn't chill him, somehow. He dodges aside as a large, two-legged riding beast straight out of "The Flintstones" goes flying past. This minor deviation in his path leads him in the direction of Johnson and Leonard, though clearly that was not his original intent.

"Many," Johnson replies, and makes a hand motion. "I need attack spells. Lightning. Fire. The cold sword. But also, easier ones. Turning dead, climbing walls, make invisible, bounce the blades, direct life power ..." He shrugs. "So much to learn." His head tilts, and there's a pause, his helmet revealing nothing. "Right now I research new spell. Makes fists big, make punches hard. Make hits a hundred feet away. Like people at gym?" He sways an inexpert punch or two, shadowboxing, though he stops as he sees Gabriel drawing near. Johnson raises a hand, and points at the shredded strip of paper where the offending dragon sign once stood. "Make someone unhappy!" he proclaims. "Maybe ... seen by dragon?"

Leonard watches the many gestures that accompany the long list with some amusement. "That is... much to learn." He's not sure quite what to think of the other man, or if Johnson even qualifies as that, in the human sense.

"Leo, hey. Nice to be alive, isn't it?" The Kentucky drawl is pretty obvious, just in case someone had managed to not spot the man coming into the city. Gabriel glances and narrows his eyes very tightly at the other man. "I'm sorry, have we met? I feel like we have... but I can't quite remember you." A small pouch slips out of one of the older man's apparently non-secured pockets. "Oops!" He bends down and scoops the little bag up and out of the snow. "No one's seen any dragons today, have they?" He sounds rather amused at the subject.

Johnson nods. "After I learn that, something else. Always. You keep learning. Never stop. Else why go to school?" He leans in, giving Leonard a light back-handed slap on the shoulder. "Need rethink time table. From others, can learn many spells a week. Not like books. Learn fast." He snaps his fingers, once, twice, "Like that. You see." The armored man turns towards Gabriel, shrugging once. "You came to town, saw sign. Said not dragon, then had to go. Something about draining lizard. Is lizard OK?"

Leonard chuckles, but it stutters some at the slap from Johnson. "It is, Gabriel, and I'm glad you're none the worse for wear. I've not seen any dragons, lately. It's been quite some time, actually."

Johnson points at the shredded remains of the sign, and wonders, "Where is lake? I know -- dead. Scary. Lots of no good. I have looked for strangers who asked about monolith in water, but nobody seems to know them. They just point back at you." He makes a small noise that the translator doesn't seem to understand, as it buzzes at Leonard.

"It's north, towards Laramy," Leonard turns to gesture in the general direction, "but I suggest avoiding it. To say that it's dangerous would be a notable understatement, I'm afraid. I've not spoken with those particular strangers, though I think that others are or will be."

Valeriya makes her way out from the gates on foot as always. How she spends so much time walking in those shoes she has is something of a mystery to some but she does without complaint. Given the winter weather is persisting through the end of the year her helment is currently on as she heads north, taking her route past the sign she left for a check up.

It's mid afternoon, the sun tucked neatly behind clouds to the southwest. Wind whips snow off banks and concrete, creating eddies of low fog-like spray without fresh flakes falling from the sky. Johnson points in the same direction Leonard does, and says, "Some say Kingsdale too dangerous. I here. Woman I met, maybe part of school, but she thinks me worthless. I find something, maybe get student. I need guide. Will you take me? Stay back, I go in? Not so dangerous?" The sign is in tatters. The remaining strips look as if something sharp and micro-serrated tore through it. An alligator tooth, or a vibro-blade. Overkill, either way. Leonard shakes his head. "I'm afraid not. I was merely accompanying a friend, before, though you're welcome to ask about a return trip. There may be one, but I don't know if I'll be part of it." Valeriya is noticed and greeted. "How are you?"

"Better than my sigh by the looks of it. Freakin vandals." Valeriya says with a sigh as she takes in whats left of the warning. "Oh well, most people couldnt ready it anyway. How are you? Joining Johnson's school I wonder?"

"He thinks of it," Johnson replies gamely. "I have one student. I teach him tomorrow, then he teach me. Fair. But your pond stays hidden. I hear of people looking for big stone in pond, look for people. Find stories of you. Nobody who has been will talk. I think it hole to hell or lost gold city." The armored man reaches to brush a small dusting of snow from his head, and makes a noise the translator doesn't understand. "Next step is wander woods blind. Maybe find it. Maybe not. Sounds like bad deal."

"You'll be lucky if you don't find it is my thought. But if you are really set on finding it maybe you should ask Sage about being in the escort team for the four. That or hire some local guide for a few hundred credits. Your choice, I'd take you or draw you a map, but I'm not so good with planetary navigation." Valeriya says to Johnson with a shrug. "Odd you are so eager to find a hole to hell no?" ] "Your sign?" Leonard glances towards the remnants. "Oh, you were warning all about the ...dragon?" He is not so convinced of the creature's true nature. "And, yes, I'm considering participation. The exchange of knowledge is a benefit." He looks back to Johnson. "Sage would be the one to speak to. It was her concerns that first led us there, and her intuition that had us return recently."

Johnson walks towards Valeriya, pointing at her as his head tilts back to look at the woman. "I not want hole to hell. City of gold not bad. I want student. You say no. Maybe I learn something you say yes. See something I can teach. Come learn, come teach, I forget dirty pool. Deal?" Johnson crosses his arms across his chest, looking up at Valeriya with feet shoulder-width apart. "Yeah but a city of gold just doesnt seem all that likely and diamonds would be better." Valeriya replies before cocking her head at Johnson. "I didn't say no. You did after I didnt volunteer whatever you wanted to hear about the black puddle. Said you dont want people with secrets in your school. Which was a rather rude and naive thing to say as everyone has secrets. Struck a particular nerve because your the second person offering something too good to be true to com off as a hypocrit. But yeah you let go of my reluctnace, I'll let go of yours, clean the slate and we'll see what can be done." She agrees, extending her hand to shake on it even.

Leonard blinks at the mix of animosity, assumption, and arrangements between the others. "Should I leave you two with some time to yourselves? I suddenly wonder if I'm interrupting..." His mild curiosity moves to Valeriya, specifically. "You are a student of magic, as well?" Leonard could have see her become unseen, as much as that is possible, but he was just a wee bit distracted at the time.

"How too good?" Johnson wonders. "I get more from more people. I teach you first. You run, you get one spell. You win small. I love time. You stay, you learn many spells. We both win big. Nobody asshole." He reaches for Valeriya's hand, to give her a shake. His grip inside the glove is strong. "I forget puddle. No win there. Money make thick armor. Knowledge make thick head. Thick head better."

"Its just that others in the pursuit of magic are much less generous with their spells. Not that I think they are right, but they are the majority. Ypu're offering something all together different. That warrants a measure of speculation." Valeriya explains to Johnson before nodding to Leonard. "I know a few incantations to keep me out of trouble, nothing too crazy."

"A thick head.." Leonard chuckles. "I've heard that description on occassion." To Valeriya, he shrugs. "An exchange of knowledge is something I've sought for quite some time. Unfortunately, I'd found very little success, until recently. As you said, most are not so generous."

Johnson tilts his head, and waves at the gates. "Learning magic sometimes messy. Do outside of town until safe place is made in town. I teach Blake tomorrow. I can teach more. But I teach one, then I learn one. Unless something rare, then we negotiate. Once going, gets easier. Trust. Yes? Maybe, of something is wanted by many, we can combine? Like real school. If you know safe place, no people to hurt, where warm?" Johnson looks up, then back at the city, and at Leonard, "Tell me?"

"Out side the city is fine by me. As is teaching one for learning one, though we could run out of spells in time that's probably far off. As I see it now it give me two for one on any spell I buy so thats a worthy deal." Valeriya agrees with a nod. Looking to Leonard she smirks. "Wouldnt mind learnign that freaky armor you conjour. That looks nice."

Leonard rolls his shoulders to Valeriya. "It serves as both protection and deterrent, and it is not nearly as unsettling to wear as it looks. I'd be willing to share in a fair exchange, since there's always more to learn. As for shelter, I can conjure one easily enough, though it wouldn't be large enough for many." "We have four people," Johnson says. "If three need one, is better. You teach one, you get three back. Happens faster. Yes?" That armored head swivels back and forth, noting, "This can work. Only trouble, get Blake in at same time as you." He makes a sound that the translator doesn't quite understand, and adds, "And hope spells not lost in translation."

"And I might know two more who would be interested." Valeriya notes with a nod, and another at the rate. "Exactly, could run out of spells quickly with that many, But that's not really a bad thing. Just something that needs to seen." She says before considering Leonard. "How about superhuman strength? Carry some muscle into your next fight."

"Interesting..." Leonard seems intrigued at Valeriya's suggestion. "I'd not thought of that approach, though I'm not much of a physical combatant, regardless. Your ...eagerness to get into the fray could be why I didn't realize your arcane aptitude." He may be used to the two being mostly mutually exclusive. "Blake?" The name isn't familiar to him, but he notes, "If schedules don't mesh, notes and formulae can always be exchanged, instead. It isn't quite the same as a tutor, but then everyone can learn at their own pace."

Johnson pipes up, "I know this. The strength, not armor. I say; make lists. What we want. What we have. If hold back, no big deal. No teach, no learn. We start with what everone need. More progress fast. Write any language. I translate if need. I have this spell. If cannot meet with everyone, then pairs for spells group not need. Organize. Blake Vargus."

"I'm not so great with writing, actually I cant write at all to be honest." Valeriya admits, sounding small even if she cant look it. "But I can make up for that, if I can trust both of you. I have a unique ability for learning spells."

Leonard quirks a brow at Valeriya and her admission, but tries to keep his response from seeming judgemental. She doesn't look small to him, at all. "Well, if you've an alternative, that would be helpful. Also, if you'd like help with literacy, I'm sure that we could do that, also."

"Writing work," Johnson replies, and waves at Valeriya. "If you can teach by adding to pool? You will be taught. We do what we need. My only issue is trust. By learning from scrolls, is trouble. Still need list for fair. Tell you what. We make lists of spells. I write assignments. Two or three spells per person. We bring them all to library, one place, one time. Make copies. Distribute. Everyone leaves. If one person writes bad scrolls, well." Johnson makes a quick slashing motion across his neck. "Many mages now enemies."

"I can learn a spell in a day, maybe two, depending on my concentration. That spell needs only be active or in place in an item and not a major spell. I cant learn major spells at all. But I can understand them for a period of time, to relate them to someone else." Valeriya says quickly after sever minutes of clear hestitation. Her helmet turns cautiosly with that bit of information out, watching the reactions closely.

Leonard nods to Johnson. "I doubt attempting to cheat anyone would prove worthwhile, even if no one came after, looking for a refund." He is once more intrigued by Valeriya, but can also understand her hesitation. "So long as you're polite enough to ask, and there are no detrimental effects, I've no problem with aiding you via your talent. I'm envious, as that would be very useful. Not unlike a spell i recently acquired, though it deals in information of any topic, and is entirely temporary."

Johnson inclines his head. "I go. Different meeting. Bring me list of spells. I find unique, make you list. Valeriya, we will talk of trade. Some way for you to teach, to add. Tell your friends. Get them in. Bigger is better. Hard cap for trade is week from now. By then everyone must have lists. Then assignments go out. If you have questions, see problems, ask tomorrow. Ibe here." He raises a hand, a parting wave, and steps back, headed for the gates.

"Of course. it's pretty obvious when I go to learn, I have to trance for as much as twenty minutes each attempt and have about fifty percent chance of success. So I cant take a spell you cast without you knowing it. But my reason for mentioning that is if we buy a technowizard item with the desired spells, I can learn them and teach them." Valeriya explains with a nod.

Leonard lifts a hand to wave to Johnson. "I don't foresee any problems, and I will look for you within the week. Thank you for the offering and suggestion. It's good to know that not all who incant or invoke are stodgy and old." Even he few ancient stories he's learned of seemed to have it right, or people at present are simply living up to stereotypes.