RP:People In Glass Houses Shouldn't Throw Stones

Part of the Do You Believe In Magic? Arc

Summary: Linn and Odhranos discuss their current predicament and tries to attempt to figure things out.

Raiez's Cave (Dead End)

Linn, who was going to be Odhranos’s new jar-mate, well, he was sitting in his jar down in Raiez’s lair. Whenever the dragoness came close for one reason or another, he made sure he was sitting back along the jar, looking bored, or passively contemplating a way to get out. There wasn’t much else to do, truth be told; the jar had nothing in it to keep him occupied and take his mind off of the consequences of the kidnapping. So there he sat, idly tracing a circle on the glass floor as he sat there in nothing but the most basic underwear, as all of his gear and possessions had been taken away and thrown in with the hoard. Even if they weren’t magical, they were with magical things, or they were shiny. Without the armor he always wore it wasn’t hard to see everything it normally hid. His chest was missing hair in a handprint-shaped patch, and he was incredibly lean which gave an unnatural definition to his muscles. Stringy, one particular hunter-cat had described him so well. And bored, right now. So very bored, and maybe a little agitated at the passing of time. Juuuust a little.

Odhranos shook his head and got to his feet with a world-weary groan. He pulled himself up onto his arms and into a sitting position, cradling his head as he got his bearings. What was the last thing he remembered? Frostmaw? Xalious? Xalious seemed to ring a bell, although not the town. The... valley? Yes! He had been climbing and that dragon appeared! Suddenly everything came flooding back and the mage scrambled to his feet. "Wh...where the hell am I?" The mage exclaimed, pressing his hands to the glass and gazing out of the jar, trying to comprehend what he was seeing.

Linn looked up to see Odhranos get dropped in the jar with a plop, and remained silent as the mage regained his bearings and got up, cracking a weak smile and shaking his head. “You’re with the missing mages! If you wondered who and where they were… now you know.” Linn’s voice came out rather fast and squeaky, but still just capable of being understood. If Odhranos turned around, he’d get to see why. The enchanter was shrunk a little more than the rest, maybe just over half their size in the jars for whatever reason. “Welp, at least I’m not entirely alone in here anymore.” He muttered out with a light ‘heh.’

Odhranos turned, bewildered at the strangely familiar voice that echoed around the close quarters of the jar. When he had wheeled about, he realised he wasnt alone. He crouched down slightly and brought his eyes level with what he unfortunately assumed to be a child. "So this is where the mages ended up? Are you a mage then, kiddo?" The mage made an attempt at comforting the "kid" before realising why he looked and sounded so familiar. "W..w..waitaminnit - Linn?!" The mage straightened, vaguely managing to keep the expletives in. "I am... so so sorry, I didn't recognize you!" The mage backed up against the wall of the jar, his face burning bright red with embarrassment. "So they... she got you too?" The mage asked lamely, trying to salvage the situation.

Linn’s brows raised as Odhranos spun around and he got a good look at the terramancer’s face. Voices were hard to figure out when everyone sounded like giants to him. He tilted his head sideways at the initial tone, but when Odhranos began freaking out he just grinned with a weak chuckle; he didn’t mind the mistakes. “Yep. Odhranos… fancy seeing you here.” As he asked about Linn’s situation the enchanter shot him a split-second long look of ‘you think?’ before nodding with a much more tame “Mmmmhmm. Along with a bunch more. I’ve been trying to figure out a way outta here. Not too much I can see from here unfortunately, not much important to that anyway.” Slowly he stood up to walk to the front of the jar again, looking back around the expanse of the cave with a thoughtful look. Adding to his list of markings that would be evident now are the chaotic scars that covered his whole backside from head to heel. “We get food at least. So it could be worse. Then again, everything can be it seems.”

Odhranos shook his head, trying to clear the fog from his head. "Blegh, apologies. Without your armor and shrunk, you looked quite different." The mage kneaded his pounding temples and slowly slid down the glass wall to the ground. From his vantage point, he could see the vast cave out beyond the glass, beyond reach. "Yeah. Suppose things could be worse. Has she opened up on why she's kidnapping mages yet?" The mage slumped a little where he sat, then brightened for a moment. Rifling through his pockets, he cursed, then drew his hands back out. "Gone. Not even one speck of sand. 'Spose that makes sense, she wouldn't want to leave me with any tools. That why she took your armor?" The mage inquired, getting to his feet to stand behind Linn.

Linn chuckled lightly and nodded as Odhranos exclaimed just how much identity came from his armor. When asked about why she was kidnapping the mages he just shrugged. “Collection I think. She called us… pets?” he tilted his head over to the jar beside them with Khitti, DomiBrand, and another female redhead who… was wearing some armor that didn’t cover her chest. They were all probably asleep, in the books left in that jar, or just brooding. “still, seems she wants us all alive for one reason or another.” At the mention of the sand and tools he quirked a brow and looked back to Odhranos. “Doesn’t matter too much. She seemed interested in it though. This, well…” he looked down to his underpants, all he had. “Was the only thing I didn’t have enchanted or with something that was. I might be able to get something myself…” he sighed with a look of profound disappointment coming to his face, “If this jar wasn’t made of damned –glass-.”

Odhranos took a look at the enchanter's skimpies and began shrugging his way out of the robes. Beneath, he wore a black segmented breastplate and greaves, with a grey (course it's grey) tunic and trousers. Passing the robes across to Linn, he offered a "here, they may be a little big, but it's better than nothing." He glanced across and spied KhittiDom in the jar across from them (sparing a slight grin because OTP). He looked out past them at an innumerable collection of jars, each one housing one or two men or women. The mage rubbed his hand against the glass, grimacing. "Not even proper silica based, I can't do a thing." He frowned.

Linn waved away the offer of robes. “If we get outta here, I have to get my stuff fast as I can. It’s fine…” he cracked a whimsical grin, “Besides, that’s just gross.” With that he weakly chuckled before going to look down underneath the jar. “Great. Not even quartz glass huh?” he paused, eyes rolling up in thought, “actually that’s a real pain to make, nevermind. And anything I might be able to do to break it…” he sent a long stare at the walls that mirrored everything back in a faint warped image, “probably wouldn’t end well for us, and I need some proper tools to just cut us out. Need a better idea…” he trailed off with another sigh. “so… stuck, stuck sitting, stuck thinking. This is what it’s like to be a captive.”

Odhranos smiled and shrugged the robes back on again, the grey fabric falling around his shoulders then boot-clad ankles. "I'd imagine Raiez wouldn't just leave tools around, where would you suggest we get the materials we need?." The mage pondered, pacing in a slow circle around the inside of the jar. Stopping to lean against the glass, he gazed across at Khitti's jar. Strewn about the container were books, in small piles, open, closed, half-leafed through. In a small pile alongside the topless female, the mage saw a collection of swords, daggers, even... is that a machete? "I wonder.... how long has Raiez kept you here?" the mage asked of his jar-mate, jerking a thumb over his shoulder to point out the little comforts that Khitti and her companion had been granted. "Long enough for Her to give you anything to keep yourself occupied? We may just be handed our way out.."

Linn glanced at Odhranos and swished his mouth at the prospect of actually getting some materials for a breakout. “Certainly not inside here. We’d just have to make it from whatever we get, IF we get anything.” He had taken to tracking Raiez as she went about the cave again, by now figuring out she didn’t really give a crap that he was legitimately trying to get out. Not like there were a ton of other mages trying to do the same, and all failing miserably. “Not too sure entirely. No sun to keep track of days, and I don’t exactly sleep on a proper schedule without it.” Cocking a brow he looked over to the occupants in the other jar. Khitti and the bitey one probably didn’t have a way of telling either, being (un)dead and all. So he was left awkwardly looking at DomiBrand for a little before shrugging. “Must have been a few days at least. Maybe a week. So long as she’s busy handling some matter that will keep all this from blowing up instead I’ll deal with it.”

Odhranos nodded, he had been thinking the same thing. Even a sword could be remolded down into something else, something more useful. The mage pressed his nose to the glass, trying to see out into the dimly lit cave beyond. "Bugger, she even took my lenses, we might have been able to get a better look at what's out there with them." The mage shook his head, turned and slumped to his haunches, his back resting into the curve at the base of the jar between curved wall and floor. Glancing across at the enchanter, he grimaced and gave a lopsided smile. "I guess we're not going to be able to do much in the meantime...." Odh trailed off, stuck for want of a conversation starter. "How... how've things been? Before you got kidnapped I mean? Last I saw you was in Frostmaw, the mines...." The mage trailed off again, only realising now how little he actualy knew about the enchanter.

Linn shrugged again as Odhranos commented about what was out there. “Not much to see anyway!” he chirped with a light chuckle. “You’re going to get more information just by watching and listening to the dragon out there.” Idly he tapped on the glass, looking through the base at the stone below as the grey mage sat down, only looking back up as more words came. He got a bored, affirmatory nod and smile. When the mage asked about what been going on in his own life, Linn rolled his eyes and took a deep breath. “They’ve been going. World’s finding ways to go to hell, as usual. Besides that… a few projects here and there, all of which are now on hold because of this. I’ve got a lot of damn stuff to reclaim if I get out for it all to be important again. Lots of stuff in progress, lots of information packed in it too.” He shrugged before looking back to Odhranos, “You?”

"A couple of things here and there. My research for the Mage's Guild is probably going to fall to the wayside with the current crisis, I met a recently un-exiled Provost just a few days ago, he's pretty worked up about the disappearances, but hasn't the slightest clue where they - sorry, -we-, are. Beyond that... I haven't seen my hatchling in a while, she might get worried when she doesn't get word. Artia's working too, so... to be honest, beyond that, there's not a whole lot out there that will change now I'm in here." Great way to put a spin on it, Odh, really positive stuff. Shaking his head a little, the mage tried to perk up a little, glancing across at Linn. "So what's your latest research topic been?"

Linn passively nodded as Odhranos relayed the news from his end, though the mention of Artia brought a single twitch to his eye. “You never know. I’ve seen stuff go south in a single night. We don’t have much of a choice but to find out about it after the fact do we though? Just gotta focus on the here and now.” Linn seemed to be assuring himself more than anyone else with the statement, turning his gaze back outside the jar to wherever Raiez might be. On his latest topic, he shrugged. “Number of things. Another job or two up in Frostmaw, a couple personal projects. One of them’s an old tool of mine that got…” he trailed off, swishing his mouth again, he had no idea how to put it. “Well, it’s not useable anymore, so I’m making a new one. Damn thing was such a mess before there isn’t anything I can use from my records of it. Other project… a little ring I’ve been using to store information. In trying to make it work a bit better…” he blew out a sigh, “I had to remake the whole damn thing. And all the progress I have on the both of those…” he pointed out the jar in some random direction into the cave. “Is in my bag out there.”

Odhranos had slid down and now lay on his back, staring up at the sealed top of the jar above him. "I remember that ring, you used it to examine that crystal back in Xalious. That was.... certainly an interesting evening. I haven't seen Kree since, should probably go apologise." The mage sighed and shuffled around slightly, peering out through the wall beside him. "I found another one of them, actually. Massive one, it's what I'm researching in the Guild. You should drop by when all this is over, to take a look. With a fresh point of view, you might be able to find something I've missed."

Linn cracked a weak smile recalling the incident with Kree. “Yeah, that was… interesting. I haven’t seen him either.” The name managed to bring back a couple –other- memories though, at which he had to suppress a shudder. Bachelor parties: never again. At the mention of another one of the crystals he looked back to Odhranos with some mix of curiosity and ‘oh god’. “Well then. Unfortunately I’m not personally a part of the guild. Still, you might be able to pull some strings and we can look into it together. I just have to be careful not to… well, you know what happened last time.” He blew out a sigh, trying to shake off the feeling of being a pug as he recalled it.

Odhranos couldn't help the smile. "Interesting is certainly the word for it. I can't look at a ferret normally ever again. Thankfully, although the crystal is the same, it has a completely different purpose, also there's the benefit that it's intact, the damage to the last one was pretty catastrophic. Still, caution is never wasted in this line of business." He sat up and grinned across at Linn. "I'm sure the mages would be delighted to meet Sir Pugley in any case." He joked, laughing lightly, then sat up and glanced out of the jar. "I still had the shard of the previous crystal on me when Raiez captured me. Could be one more thing in our arsenal when... -if- we get out."

Linn nodded at the idea of a new purpose. “Runes, what I do know about them? Draw them a little differently and you get different results. But I’m no record-keeper in that department.” When Odhranos teased about the pug incident Linn just shot him a look of ‘please tell me you didn’t tell them about that.’ “I have a chunk or two of it in my pack as well. The rest were left back at home. It’s an interesting enough substance. If I scrubbed the runes I could probably do something with it. The light absorption is… unique to it, for sure. At least on the level that thing was capable of.” He trailed off with an innocent look. He –totally- wasn’t thinking about repurposing that gem for his own enchantments.

Odhranos raised an eyebrow at Linn's terribly convincing look of innocence. "I still haven't found the source of the crystals, so you might want to hold on to the samples you have at the moment, they are currently the only known samples to exist." He shook his head, the Guild was doing it's best to keep the crystals on the down-low, their properties meant that they were highly valuable and could be used to perform any number of unique feats of magic, but at the same time, they held the potential for untold damage and destruction if they fell into the wrong hands. "I'd appreciate any help you could offer with the runes. The resources on offer to me in the Mage's Library have been invaluable to me in translating what I can, but it's like trying to pick a lock with a screwdriver,it's just too complicated for such a basic instrument, or in this case, basic knowledge." The mage raised a hand and pointed across at Dominic's jar. "Dominic tried helping me out, but between us, we still didn't get far. He's been researching runes for his own project. I'd recommend asking him about it if you have the time."

Linn nodded; he still had plenty left… “Nothing truly valuable is safe to get. Who knows what might be around this deposit?” He grinned and chuckled lightly at the ideas, but at the offer of helping with the runes he shook his head. “I don’t do anything with runes at all. Only the basic links they’d have to enchantment as a whole. They’re a way to impose a pattern on the magic that makes them work. I typically do that with the material itself. So, I don’t really know anything of the specific runes.” He trailed off again, eyes rolling up in thought. “If you don’t mind things potentially happening again though, I could try to probe what does what in action though. Course, that might just defeat the whole idea of reading the runes to find out what they do wouldn’t it?”

Odhranos grinned. "I guess I'll just have to find out when I go looking. If it's anything to the scale of what I've seen so far, I don't even know what to expect. Could be anything from ancient guardians to arcane armies. Should be fun!" The mage quiped, ruffling his unkempt brown hair. He then shook his head at Linn's question. "On the contrary. If we know the purpose of the rune, we can better translate it. Sort of a magical reverse engineering in a sense. We might even be able to update some of the Guild's information in the process."

Linn glanced at Odhranos and grinned in return. “Trust me, there are some things you wish you’ll didn’t get into. It can get downright –weird-.” This was magic they were talking about, of course it was going to be weird! “Still, it might not be the best controlled. I don’t know how precise we’ll be able to get if we do it that way. But I might be able to get a decent record of what runes or groups of them correspond to different effects. After that it’s up to the experts to figure out what happened. Heh… So long as I get the information for myself as well.” He rolled his eyes, grumbling out something something guild administration. He didn’t have the best impressions of them.

Odhranos grimaced; he knew firsthand how stingy the Mage's Guild could be with it's information, rationing it brutally amongst it's members and cutting off those on the outside in favour of greater personal learning. "I hope with the new reform, the Guild won't be quite as bad as you remember it to be, there are many big changes on the horizon. Nonetheless-" Odh gave the enchanter a conspiratory wink; "-there's nothing they can do to keep information from you if you yourself happen to be gathering it." The mage tinkled his knuckles lightly against the glass, sending a crystal chiming noise rolling around the jar. "I understand the Guild's drive to protect it's information from misuse, but there is a point when protection becomes over-bearing control. Hopefully Aiden and Kovl can see that and set it right. Magic shouldn't be controlled anymore than.. i don't know, water or air. It's something natural and free, not something to bottle in jars or pin down in books and hide away..." Sighing despairingly, the mage picked at his robes in a melancholy manner.

Linn tilted his head and shrugged. “Depends if they can figure out how to get past keeping to themselves so they can do things a bit better. Shutting themselves in? Bad idea.” The statement was mostly analytical, but a personal note rested on the ending statement. “At the very least I can get the raw data. I can sort through that eventually if they don’t want to give me any more information.” When Odhranos relayed his feelings on magic Linn just shrugged. “It’s just another force in this world. Another way to manipulate it. What scares people…” he tapped his foot in thought. “Is that it’s difficult to gage or limit. It can put arbitrary power into one’s hands with enough time, and most wouldn’t even know it. Even the elements of the physical world have their limits. With magic… it’s just hard to tell.”

Odhranos nodded, keeping silent as he mulled over what Linn said. The mage had always felt that magic was something more than just another energy, another set of forces to prod the world with. It had always felt... he wasn't even sure how it felt, it just felt like it was something more than that. He kept this to himself though, starting a fight on the nature of the world while stuck in a small, hopefully-not-airtight jar wasn't the best way to make friends. "I guess it's like here in a sense." The mage sat up and waved around at the jar they were in. "Here as in this situation. Hoarding of magic, it's always an issue that arises. People want power, magic gives power, so people want more magic than the person next to them to remain in power, it's a ceaseless cycle." He sighed and rubbed his tired face, suddenly feeling weary and worn.

Linn grinned as Odhranos related the situation of hoarding magic to the kidnappings. “You’re certainly not wrong. It happens with anything that gives power. It just depends what they do with that power isn’t it? Here…” he pointed around to the other jars and the rest of the cave. “It wouldn’t be so bad so far… IF it wasn’t people that were the collateral of said hoarding. Maybe she has bigger plans for all of us. Maybe she’s just a dragon hoarding stuff she likes. And well, she doesn’t care for who she harms.” He trailed off swith a sigh. “Anyway. I think there is some merit to locking certain things away. Some things are just nothing but trouble, but the difficulty is where to draw that line.” Another shrug. Linn didn’t seem to mind the argument at all, but then again it was mostly just his own rambling at this point.

Odhranos leaned back and looked out at the upside-down scene that greeted him outside the jar. Countless other jars, with people trapped inside, each one with a family, a life, a past and -if they ever got out- a future. "It's just a lot different when it's a human being behind the glass instead of some old relic. Just shows you how bat-s*** crazy this dragon is to have detached herself to the point she feels no remorse about it." He placed his knuckles to the glass, pushing gently against it as if he intended to draw back and punch... but then simply let his fist fall. "Makes you think, doesn't it? Whether we'd be better off without magic entirely. It's a whole lot harder to balance everything with magic in the equation. The mother of all variables, eh?" The mage cast a sad grin across at Linn, then shook his head and grunted unahppily. "I don't want to get you down, let's not add doom and gloom to an already doomy-and-gloomy situation. I might have a pack of cards on me if you're up to passing the time?" The mage offered, crossing his legs and rifling through his pockets, settling in for what promised to be a long night/day/non-denotable-period-of-time.

Linn shrugged with a weak smile at the speculation of just what went on in the head of the dragon that kept everyone here. He seemed to have a look of ‘I’ve seen worse’ in his eyes. At the conjecture of just how things might potentially go without magic, Linn shook his head. “It wouldn’t change a thing. People would find something else to fight over, hoard, and make everything generally awful with. They’d also make those things for good.” A thought struck him that made him crack a huge grin. “Besides, all we do with magic is carry out ideas and physical effects in the end in one way or another. Like heating metal with magical fire, smiths have bellows. I bet it’d go a similar way for many other things without magic.” Food for thought thrown into the air he nodded at the offer for cards. “Sure. I haven’t ever played with cards much, but it’ll give us something to do. Maybe you’ll get to teach me a couple things?” With a chuckle he turned to face Odhanos and begin whatever game they might be playing.

Odhranos shrugged, people would always be people. His homeland had been a mess enough even without much magic, so he could agree with what Linn said. The mage found the cards and after slipping them from the tatty cardboard box, began to shuffle them. "I'd better not do any 'magic' tricks, Raiez might want them for herself." He joked, grinning slightly as he dealt the pack in half. "Lets see how rusty my poker skills have gotten..."