RP:An old friend

Emilia | North-east of the mines past the field of flowers cloaked in magic to hide it from unwanted visitors stood the massive Greenhouse that belong to none other than the Ice Genasi Emilia. It had been built with the helping hands of the giants some time well over a year ago leaving the glass building standing at a height that could easily fit three full sized giants inside, a massive place considering the petite size of the owner. Within the clear walls rows of greens could be seen from afar, even the tier layout of the planets allowing for more room for plants was easily made out along with what could easily be guess as ladders, how else would a five foot person reach a level above ground at ten feet in the air plus? Yet, at the present moment the Healer was sitting outside the glass enclosure upon a pile of snow enjoying a break from the sauna like climate within her herb collection. Snow white curls dancing about her freckle covered face with the gentle breeze. She looked at peace with the world around her. A book in her lap, icy gaze lost down within the text upon the worn pages being slowly flipped by a glossy black hand made of, you guessed it, ice.

Linn wandered about Frostmaw for some time, keeping a low profile given the present lack of protective armor… not that he’d be able to keep a low profile with it anyway. He wore a simple brown robe with a fur coat over it for now to keep out the cold, clashes of fashion be damned. The right sleeve on him was noticeably baggy, lacking the shape (or hand) of a proper arm inside. Despite the superficial appearance of missing the limb inside, it would continue to move and gesture as it should. His trips would take him around through the reconstructed mines to Emilia’s greenhouse, the sight of the glass construct bringing about a faint, sad sigh. He’d look into it for a little bit before finally catching the sight of Emilia, the familiar genasi breaking his mood up and bringing about a smile. “Emi?” He’d call out from a distance as he approached, giving her a wave before walking up and sitting down by her to steal a glance at the book himself. Her black hand would draw a double-take shortly after though. What had happened there…?

Emilia for once in a few rare moments of life appeared fully uninjured sitting there on the snow bank, no visible wounds or bandages to be spotted. Perhaps some patches of skin looked a tad bit pink as if annoyed by the sun, but a ice creature working inside a building of glass could be the answer to those patches. Unlike Linn the woman didn’t seem phased by the sight of her own hand being glossy and black, slick compared to the flesh of her other hand, it was exactly like the hand had turned to ice with a coloring of black beneath the surface. That is what you get when you play with your friend’s magical ice on study. Ah well, lesson learned. Turning that icy gaze upon the one dressed in the oddest of brown robes the Genasi gave an ear to ear grin at seeing her old pal, “Linn! Why I feel like you had disappeared off the face of Hollow! It is grand to see you!” Yes, the tone that came with the cheerful smile was one of happiness to see Linn. Book in her lap held open at the page she was presently skimming. A book about wings, all different types of wings from hawks to ducks to avians to dragons.

Linn shrugged waved his hands in a helpless gesture as Emilia greeted him back, the baggy sleeve pulling back enough to reveal a hand made of levitating cloudy blue stones. “I kind of did. It’s a long story. Now I’m coming back and… things are… about what they used to be.” He concluded the statement with a nod, and maybe a bit of an irritated sigh. “How have you been? From what I can tell I’ve been gone for quite some time.”

Emilia lifted bony shoulders in a shrug to his response, “I can say that things have changed since you vanished into thin air. Xersom ran off with the kids and hasn’t been back in beyond countable days. Seems I find myself abandoned in the world once more, single and without children. Suppose you should know since you and Lynn did have a bond there. Beyond that the world has changed. Larket is a mess, Frostmaw has been in and out of mess.” A sigh left those frosted lips, the same vanishing from sight, “Things will be always they ever area, a constant repeat of chaos and peace. Nothing really ever changes….but your hand? What in the land did you do to it?” So, she couldn’t keep her mouth shut as she’d been just staring at it since it was revealed.

Linn blinked as Emilia mentioned being abandoned once again, a distant look taking him for a moment before he shook it off. The rest seemed to be old news that he shrugged at again. “Larket was a mess before I vanished. Though it’s even more so now from the sounds of it… But yeah… the chaos always finds ways to pop back up.” When his hand was mentioned he swallowed with a sideways glance. “Lost it to some of my own stupidity. And a bit more.” He pinched the fabric up by his shoulder to indicate just how far the alteration had gone, pulling it into the joint to show where another one of those immaterial bindings was made. “Got a bit of help to throw this together to make up for it, but… it needs some work.” Another sigh and a shrug before he looked back to Emilia and her altered hand. “And what exactly happened to your hand? That… wasn’t like that last time I recall either.”

Emilia with curious eyes followed what Linn had revealed to her about his arm. A few fingers twitching as the curious little Genasi wanted ever so badly to reach out and touch it, because it was new and different. Keeping her hand to herself was proving hard, yet she managed to keep it to herself until he mentioned her dark hand. Lifting it up she held it out toward him, allowing him to look at it more closely, In the sun it glistened like sheer ice. “Well, after I played with that piece of your ice that one day? It started to change...the white slowly turned solid and black before it stopped spreading. I just have an ice hand for my own stupidity now.”

Linn didn’t seem to mind Emilia reaching out to touch the stony arm he fabricated in the time he was gone; her interest even brought about a small smile before he cautiously pulled the sleeve all the way up to his shoulder and let it drop through the gap made by the floating stone. It was slimmed down compared to the flesh and blood arm on the other side, with a pair of barbed spines protruding back from his forearm, spaced to fit where bones used to be. Those were the only thing he wouldn’t let her touch, cause, well, they were sharp. Very sharp. When Emilia told him about her own hand he pursed his lips, looking concerned as Hildegarde’s warnings about the ice echoed in his mind. “Yeah… I almost had an ice hand too… you fixed that though. Heh…” Now he couldn’t take his eyes away from that glistening black. “Has it… given you any problems?”

Emilia would reach out with her black hand to feel over that of his created arm replacing his old arm. She was beyond fascinated by the creation of his, enough so that she would try to touch those barbed spines beneath it. Curiosity would be her downfall someday. Yet, if her glossy finger managed to skim over a sharp, very sharp, barb it would only suffer a scratch like a blade against solid ice, no blood. Pulling her hand back from feeling up his arm she shook her head, “Not so much I suppose. I mean I really cannot feel anything with it, but I cannot feel much anyways. The cold has numbed many senses of mine. Unlike my other hand it is fully solid ice over the bone, the flesh seems long gone.”

Linn was hesitant to let Emilia touch him with that black hand, though the moment she touched the stone he quirked a brow and let her continue. No freezing sensation… likely due to the stone…. But… no volatile magical reaction? The relative inertness of his creation took him by surprise, leaving him stunned enough to let her touch those spines. Only once he recovered he’d look back to her hand to find the mark left by the hard stone. It would heal, if what he knew about black ice was right. But that it had taken the flesh away was already bringing back his concern. “Suppose it’s good that it’s stopped spreading…” he trailed off as he continued looking at the icy hand, unsure what to make of it. “Strange questions now. Did it ever seem like it would go farther?” Already he was jumping to the next question that had him even more concerned. “And… have you ever heard like… voices? Strange thoughts that were… very out of place? This stuff is… known to do that when it’s inside people.”

Emilia stared down at her hand as Linn started to question her. There was a shake of her head as those curls of hers fell into her face hiding the silver freckles, “No voices. Nothing really different other than my hand is ice, black, and I wasn’t sure if it would stop spreading, but it did.” A white finger trailed up along her own black hand over her wrist where the ice slowly turned back into white flesh just beyond her wrist. “There was some incident in Frostmaw recently with a dust form of the ice...I have found that the substance is like a magnet to my hand...I can draw it out of the victims into my hand... It was an accident that just happened when I was looking over one person. Kinda freaky…”

Linn blew out a sigh of relief as Emilia confirmed that there were no voices. It didn’t seem right given the contact she had with it, but maybe it was just something different because of what she was, or maybe that spooky secret metal it was supposed to be alloyed (was that the right word?) with would be missing. Her story of dealing with the recent injuries brought him back to practical reality. “Dust form? You mean that stuff that’s been flying around on the streets? Or like… actual black ice dust?” The latter was even scarier, all things considered. “Either way that sounds… helpful, if it doesn’t affect you badly. I wouldn’t want to mess with that hand any more than it’s gotten either. Count yourself lucky for now.”

Emilia offered a shrug to the other as her hand was just as much a mystery to her as it was to him. She had been freaked out on for drawing that drug into her hand from that crazed person from another because who knew what long term effects could come from it, just because she felt fine in the moment. Shaking her head to clear the memory the Genasi turned a smile on Linn, “Seems to my memory something of a red drug and a spice drug that got leaked or something. I avoid it since the last time I looked at a person. I got yelled at for being reckless when the spice something or other drew into my hand. I suppose we don’t know enough about it to know what will or could happen to me especially with more exposure.”

Linn nodded as Emilia recounted the stories of the red dust and the ice spice. Matched up with the rumors he had heard in passing and what he had seen from time to time… still better than black ice dust. “True. If your hand is just ice at this point you… should be okay? Best not to push it though. I need to see Hildegarde or someone else about this stuff. Figure out what it is to see what can be done about it, maybe get lucky and find out why it’s all over the place now… you know, my usual habits that get me in trouble.” He couldn’t help but smirk. Damn it, of course he was going to get back into trouble. “Still, it seems you’re okay for now. If it starts giving you problems let me know, I’ll be inevitably thinking of ways to try and handle it.” He looked up to the open sky for a bit, finding the sun on its arc before sighing again. “I need to get going actually. Take care!” Pulling the sleeve back over his arm he stood up, cocking his head for a bit. “You know, magnets work through barriers, maybe we could make something so it doesn’t go into your hand but you can still get it out?”

Emilia stood herself from the snow pile as Linn glanced at the sinking sun. She was going to need to finish her own packing and get herself going here before long if she was going to be promptly early instead of late to her destination for this evening. Dusting the snow from herself the Genasi removed the bits of snow that clung to her gown before closing her eyes allowing a shimmer of magic flow through her small figure. Slowly before his eyes a pair of wings made from a mixture of delicate ice and snow emerged from her back between her shoulder blades. Opening her eyes she flashed a charmed smile toward the other, “I think in a time like this something like that would be most helpful. I shall leave your mind to the workings of that creation. I myself should also be on my wings, don’t want to be late now. It was great to see you!”

Linn grinned and nodded. “I’ll think of something! It might be as simple as a leather glove, you know. We can try it out later.” The sight of the icy wings sprouting from Emilia’s back had him entranced for quite some time, leaving him with a dumbfounded nod. “Now that… is something else. Must be quite a way to get around isn’t it?” When they made their final farewells he’d nod “And good to see you too! See you later!” He’d leave with the image of those wings on his mind more than anything for a while.