[X] Join Lifebane's fanclub
[X] Keep Lifebane around to meet the guys.
[X] Spend the hour until they get here
-[X] working on the script
--[X] While asking her how her magic works and what she can do, it will help the scrip and you may even learn something.
____
.1.47.
For the next hour, waiting around for everyone to get back, you manage - after joining Lifebane's fanclub, which apparently makes you a) the first member and b) de facto president (hooray?) - to knuckle down and work on the script.
{Screenwriting = 29 + 21 = 50 = ... Okay}
It goes... all right. Not great, but the pair of you are starting to see places where you can add Lifebane in, even if their demands to be given the most extravagant lines are somewhat... totally impossible.
"So how does your magic work, anyway?" Well, you've joined their fanclub now, so it's fine to ask, right? "What kind of things can you do with it? We might be able to work it into the script, so you can really show it off."
Lifebane puffs their ribcage chest out, clearly smug. "LIFEBANE's magick is both mighty and diverse! The magnificent LIFEBANE has the power to animate the corpses of various animals, such as mice! And rats! And pigeons! ... And one time, a hamster!"
Wow.
"Wow," you say. "That's just... wow."
Lifebane nods, smugness levels rising. "Indeed! LIFEBANE can also summon mystical darkness, and repel mystical darkness! And see in mystical darkness! And also in regular, non-mystical darkness!" They pause, considering. "Also, a little wind magic to make the robes flow more dramatically. But that is a secret, known only to LIFEBANE's most trusted!" The red-dot eyes narrow at you, accentuating the heavy weight of this responsibility.
"Wow," you say again, to be polite. "And, uh, about how it works...?"
"Ha!" Lifebane waves a hand airily. "LIFEBANE has collected various spells from here and there - mostly from there rather than here - rather than studying one particular school of magick. Of course, as a spirit-demon, LIFEBANE is best suited for the darker magicks -" They're a what-now? "- but it all runs off internal mana, rather than relying on any gods or the like. LIFEBANE has no time or inclination for participating in a Grand Quest or the like!"
Okaaay. "And uh, the pendant thing? That got us out...?"
As they pull the pendent into view, you can see what it is now - a small, branching tree, made of dull, twisted wires, tiny scratches covering the surface. It looks oddly flimsy, and completely ummagical, to your untrained eye. "One of my greatest purchases!" Lifebane seems even more excited now - you get the feeling they don't often get to brag about something that's genuinely impressive. "For each leaf, LIFEBANE can lock in a location to teleport to! Truly, this is among the the most incredible powers of the diabolical LIFEBANE!"
Praise time. "Good job!" It really does sound cool, even if Lifebane didn't make it themself. Looking closer, you can see that each branch ends in a tiny, twisted 'leaf' of wire; about five of them gleaming slightly, and the other seven or eight as dull as the rest of the tree. "So, uh, does that mean one of those locations now teleports to the air above a Crime City alleyway?"
"... Yes."
"Can you change it?"
"...... MOVING ON," they declare, "let us revisit this script, which is sorely lacking without the glamorous and exciting presence of LIFEBANE!"
Well, at least your Arcane Knowledge skill levelled up twice.
(Scriiiiipt = 50 + 21 = 71 = Pretty decent}
In any case, you actually manage to make some decent improvement over the next half an hour, with a better knowledge of what Lifebane brings to the table (beyond the ability to talk in capitals). Screenwriting levels up, and you manage to give your new skeletal buddy a decent appearance that isn't going to bore or confuse the audience, so that's a win!
As you finish up, the sound of the main door opening breaks you out of your writing groove.
"Aaaaalex?" It's Xiang, hopefully with takeout - yeah, you can see the bulging plastic bags he's carrying as he rounds the corridor into the large, open 'room'. "I go- HOLY SHIT A SKELETON."
[ ] "What?! WHERE?!"
[ ] "Dude, when did you get so bigoted?"
[ ] "Xiang, this is Lifebane. Lifebane, Xiang."
[ ] "Did you get chow mein? You'd better have got chow mein."
[ ] Write in
