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Here is a bar. At it is a girl, late teens - ? - dressed in wide bands of black silk tied ragged edge to ragged edge in a neat pattern. There's a small owl on her shoulder and a stack of napkins at her elbow and she's nursing a cup of something steaming and spicy.
doing-the-right-thing
"Great!"
From his coat he produces a small case, which he opens to reveal about a dozen glass vials. "Usually the only use I get out of these is annoying Karrin with my Egon Spengler impression."
From his coat he produces a small case, which he opens to reveal about a dozen glass vials. "Usually the only use I get out of these is annoying Karrin with my Egon Spengler impression."
dark_light
"I can use those."
She gets a fresh bowl and ingredients and mixes them up and says verses over them and then ladles some into each of ten vials and covers them with wax and verses that and hands them back.
She gets a fresh bowl and ingredients and mixes them up and says verses over them and then ladles some into each of ten vials and covers them with wax and verses that and hands them back.
doing-the-right-thing
"Thank you! These will probably be very handy. What kind of injuries do they, um, cover? As a general benchmark?"
dark_light
"They will not cover even the sort of curses that are native to my world and I wouldn't expect them to touch nasty magic from yours; they are strictly for physical folding, spindling, and mutilation. If Livingstone's hurt he can drink them too. They will not regrow limbs but if you take one instantly on getting hurt it might cover like a toe. Might. If you are well enough to take one you will not be dying any more after doing it; if somebody has to pour it into your mouth it's dicier but you'll have longer to get to the hospital."
the-nightmare-of-my-choice
"The next person who breaks all of your ribs will be in for a marginally more unpleasant surprise than usual," Livingstone agrees.
dark_light
"I do recommend them for concussions in particular if that's a problem you also have because accumulated brain damage is no one's friend."
doing-the-right-thing
"That's actually much less of a problem than it would be for a standard-issue human," Harry says. "Wizards recover perfectly from injuries, according to a friend of mine. We don't necessarily regenerate faster, but our wounds don't get infected as a rule, and scars disappear after a few years of natural healing. The same goes for the brain; if the damage is at all recoverable, I'll eventually recover. Cumulative damage isn't so much a thing."
the-nightmare-of-my-choice
"Conveniently so," notes Livingstone. "By rights he shouldn't be able to walk."
dark_light
"Oh. Well, then, save them for the many occasions when you are about to die, by all means."
the-nightmare-of-my-choice
"I believe we will. Thank you for them; we'll try to die slightly less than we would in normal circumstances."
doing-the-right-thing
"Unless we have to eat another ghost," Harry says. "Extenuating circumstances."
the-nightmare-of-my-choice
"There was a particularly unpleasant ghost, dubbed 'the Nightmare' who was riling up local spirits, psychically mutilating innocents, et cetera," Livingstone explains. "Harry was under some stress and decided that the best way to deal with this ghost would be to kill himself, temporarily become a ghost, and fight it on its own turf. He ended up eating it and taking its power for his own."
doing-the-right-thing
"Only for a few hours," Harry protests. "I don't still have evil ghost magic floating around inside me! I am one hundred percent Harry Dresden and the totally normal magic thereof."
dark_light
"...I don't have anything that might possibly help with future ghost-eating situations, sorry."
dark_light
Isabella has a couple more questions about the kinetic ring, which she winds up wearing so Path doesn't have to awkwardly clutch it; and then it seems like their useful trade has exhausted itself, and as Harry and Livingstone are about to go -
"Uh, awkward thing to mention but you're not going to pick it up anywhere else -"
"Uh, awkward thing to mention but you're not going to pick it up anywhere else -"
dark_light
Isabella winces and does not look directly at them, but says, "For most people this never comes up but one hears that daemon-touching is not inherently negative in situations of truly exceptional, ah, trust and intimacy."
the-nightmare-of-my-choice
It has been a few years. David Aleister Livingstone Dresden is an officially recognized citizen of the United States, having mysteriously lost his documentation in the fire that completely consumed the home and body of the man who kidnapped him from his family as an infant, leaving him with a crippling phobia of physical contact and an attachment to his newfound identical twin brother, who puts up with him admirably.
Their closest friends know the truth. David being Harry's soul split off into another form, a vast black wolf (which form he does still sometimes occupy), and which learned to become human by mysterious arcane means. Karrin is moderately creeped out, Michael was initially wary but has warmed to David over time, and Thomas has had two years to stop giggling but shows no intention to do so.
Currently, David is lounging around the office in case a client elects to drop by. In light of last night's catastrophe, Harry himself is in no position to man the barricades, but David always has had more of a work ethic. Which is to say, any.