Training Daze, A Crossover Fanfic of the Dresden Files
- Thread starter Ellf
- Start date
- Pronouns
- He/Him
This phrasing seems rather odd; did something get cut out by mistake?
Really, Dresden? You know darn well that Hendricks is dealing with a death in the family, and you decide to mock someone who isn't even there to defend himself? I know that you mock and deride people as a matter of principle, but please, have some taste.
Warden Dresden, you are the 'appropriate authorities' in this case. If anything, you should be working with Marcone, not in competition against him.
Honestly, the conflict here seems a touch contrived:
Marcone: I'll kill them!
Dresden: Not if I kill them first!
If there are any concerns about Marcone's likely methods in this case, all Dresden has to do is remind the man of the dangers of letting a magic-user live long enough to take a parting shot at you, such as a death curse. Frankly, with Ms. Gard and Monoc Securities on his side, I don't expect him to be stupid enough to try and take a hostile thaumaturgist alive.
Snippet 7: Rolling with the Bones
Ellf
Apprentice Wizard
- Location
- Virginia
Sorry for the delays, took me a bit to get this scene out. Next scene is the last scene before the crossover truly begins.
It hadn't taken me long to get home from Union Station. I undid the wards to my house and gave my door a hard shove. I'd had a security door installed a few years back to prevent a number of things from just trying to break into my apartment. It was made of steel, so it had been very strong and sturdy, holding up to a number of attacks. This past October, it had met its match. It turned out that even a steel security door was vulnerable to a mass attack of zombies. Who knew? My brother and I had attempted to fix it ourselves, but neither of us was especially good with construction tools.
I gave the door another hard shove with my shoulder, and it opened. I was quickly greeted by thirty pounds of feline might slamming into my shins. My cat stepped outside for a second, looked around at the snow on the ground, and immediately turned back inside in an imperious manner. It seemed that the cold was a little much for Mister, which was fine for me. I stepped inside after my cat, and waited for Mouse to come out and greet me, the way he usually did when I got home.
Usually, it wouldn't take too long for my dog to come out and lick my hand, but Mouse took a little longer than usual. I stepped further into my freshly cleaned apartment, lit the relatively new candles with a muttered spell, and looked around for him. My dog was nowhere to be found, but there was a note on the table.
Harry,
Took Mouse out for a walk around the park. I'll bring home some Chinese food.
-Thomas
Ah, that made sense. With Thomas bringing back food, I didn't need to worry about fixing anything for myself. Judging from how clean the place was, I'd have to give Pizza Express a call to check my standing order. My little helpers needed to be happy, after all. I would make sure to call when I was done with my lab work, and before I met up with the Wardens. I'd have to fish out the grey cloak to bring along with me when we confronted who was responsible for this, but until then, I was in the clear.
I trudged over to the clumsily trimmed area of carpet that covered the trapdoor that was set into my apartment's floor. I hadn't exactly had the best of artistic ability when it came to trimming carpet for that sort of thing, even before my hand got burned. I pulled open the trapdoor onto a wooden stepladder that folded out and led down into my laboratory.
A few points of reference. My apartment is in the basement of the boarding house, and my lab is in the subbasement, which honestly is a much more elegant word to say than the basement-basement. It's not really much more than a large concrete box with a ladder leading up and out of it. The walls are lined with white wire shelving, the cheap kind you can get at Wal-Mart. Wizarding rarely pays all that well, and I make enough to get by. The shelves in my lab are used to store containers of pretty much every kind, from microwave-safe containers, wooden boxes, plastic dinnerware, plastic zipper bags, and I even have a lead-sealed box where I keep some depleted uranium dust that I use for some ghost hunting. Other shelves contain books, notebooks, envelopes, paper bags, pencils, many different random objects all fight for space on my shelves. The only shelf that remains uncrowded is a lone plain, homemade wooden shelf, which at the time held only candles at either end, three romance novels, the Sports Illustrated Bikini edition, and a bleached human skull.
A long table ran down the middle of the room, leaving a space on the other side clear of any other clutter. Inlaid in the floor was a plain silver ring, my summoning circle. Underneath that, was a foot and a half or so of concrete, beneath which laid another heavy metal box which was wrapped in its own little circle, surrounded by wards and spells. Inside the box was a blackened silver coin, a denarius.
Lasciel's Shadow had appeared to me earlier this evening, after the crime scene. She hadn't even really been trying to get me to take on the coin, not directly anyway, but instead she seemed like she had been trying to help. Would accepting the help of the shadow to puzzle things out really have been so bad? The palm of my left hand, the one that had been so badly burned save for a patch of skin in the shape of Lasciel's angelic symbol, began to itch. Yes, accepting the offer for help would lead to more reliance, which would in turn lead to more manipulation, and eventually I'd pick up that coin. I rubbed the hand against my leg and ignored the itch.
My worktable, at one point, had been crowded with material. Honestly it had been that way for most of the time I had the lab. Ultimately, that was no longer the case. I had begun a project that had eaten up much of my time and funds lately, including most of the funds that I managed to get from the Wardens. It was nowhere near done, and in fact was barely out of the planning stages, but when it was finished, it would be my most complex piece of wizardry yet. Unfortunately, that wasn't what I was down here to do just yet.
"Bob," I said. "Wake up, lazybones."
Reddish-orange flames slowly burned into brightness within the open eye sockets of the skull on the shelf. "Oh, going for the skeletal cracks this early, Harry?" A voice came from within the skull. "So, is it time to work on your model?"
I shook my head. "Not tonight… Well, at least not right now, tonight. I've got a couple cases, and I've got to show a group of Wardens how I do things."
"I thought that mess had been cleared up years ago, Harry, and aren't you a Warden now? Are they going to make you arrest yourself?" Bob asked.
"Not in that way…" I ground out, pausing for emphasis. "I get to show them how I solve a case, hunt down a black magic user. After that event with the Shoggoth, Captain Luccio felt that I was a good choice for this sort of thing. Plus the two cases, one of which is definitely black magic."
"Oh, do tell," Bob sounded genuinely curious. "What sort of case would this be?"
I explained to Bob about the murders at the Sheraton, how the bodies had been prepared for us, and what I'd seen with my Sight. There hadn't been any prints other than that of the victims, how the bodies had been perfectly bisected, and the fact that it was winter meant that there weren't any summer storms to power the thaumaturgy.
"Hmm." Bob said. "It's a real stumper there. Murphy was right to think back to Victor Sells and his methods, but the weather hasn't been very conducive to that sort of work lately. Thaumaturgy definitely is the culprit, but the power had to have been generated in another way. The method of death is telling too."
"How so?" I asked, wanting Bob to continue on his train of thought.
"Come now, boss, even you know that if the point was just the death, they'd just be dead. There was a reason that they were cut in half and reassembled." Bob said, clearly annoyed.
"Yeah, I thought that too, but I couldn't figure out why, other than perhaps to send a message." I shook my head. "But then, the only person who would get that message would be Marcone, and there were probably any number of better targets than Hendricks's sister."
"And the two half thing doesn't make sense with a Marcone target." Bob said. "Maybe we're looking at this the wrong way."
Something didn't quite make sense here. See, Bob was a spirit of air and knowledge who lived within the skull, which protected him and sheltered him. In exchange for that shelter and protection, he had to listen to whoever the current owner of the skull was, provide them guidance and access to his knowledge. There was very little that Bob didn't know about magic. I couldn't believe that he would be stalling here.
"Bob," I said, a bit annoyed. "Quit trying to make me figure it out and tell me already. How did our guy manage to kill the two of them from wherever he was to there?"
"Harry, if I do all the work, you'll never learn." Bob said, matter-of-factly.
"Bob, you know the answer. Tell me." I asked. "And no, you're not getting a ride-along with me or Mister right now because it's too cold for him outside."
"Fine. I still want out and the new Victoria's Secret catalog. I've heard that the Christmas offerings are delightful." Bob said.
"I'll get you the Victoria's Secret and two romance novels. This is the wrong time of year for you to go out." I said. Winter wasn't even in full force yet, and there was ten inches on the ground, almost as if it wanted to choke the remaining bit of summer out early, before the Solstice.
"I'll be careful." Bob whined out. "I haven't been out in ages."
I grit my teeth. Bob could be stubborn when he wanted to be, and while I could just order him to tell me, I tried to limit the amount of direct orders I gave the spirit. After all, Bob was one of my oldest friends, and I couldn't just order him to do everything I wished. It wouldn't be right.
"Fine," I relented. "But only until an hour before sunrise. And I better not hear of any orgies at any fraternities or sororities."
"Of course, sahib. It will be as you say." Bob said, almost too quickly, but my focus was on what I needed to know.
"Bob, the magic, how was it done?" I asked.
"Oh, it's rather obvious that it's a ritual. Invoking the power of some deity for some reason. The specific method of death isn't really typical to any one deity for how they would kill, though. It is, however, similar to a favored sacrifice to a Roman deity. In fact, I wonder if the magic you saw in there was the murder weapon, or if it was the connection to a greater ritual."
"Greater ritual… Which deity is that?"
"The Roman god of doorways, of beginnings and endings, of transitions. Janus. The symmetry, and the opposites are what Janus likes in his sacrifices, but he didn't usually like human sacrifice." Bob said. "But sometimes rituals require more power, and thus require more in exchange."
Janus… My mind flashed to the golden coin in my duster's pocket. Father Forthill had known a bit about the god, and a group that used coins with his face as a calling card were on the way to Chicago. Now another group was killing people, possibly to sacrifice for a ritual which I had no idea of what it could do.
"Bob, what sorts of rituals do you know from Janus?" I asked.
"Not many. My previous owners were less concerned with ritual matters and more concerned with expanding their knowledge and ability with magic without relying on an outside source." Bob said.
I nodded. I was more or less the same way. Ritual magic was potentially nasty stuff, especially if the casters found something from a source that hadn't been done often or by enough people. The less people who had attempted it before, the more potent it would be.
"But, if I had to guess, I would say any rituals about giving birth or having good trade are right out. No, if the ritual requires human sacrifice, then something big is going to happen."
"And given that Janus is the god of doorways…" I started, thinking it over.
"He is also the god of gates and passages." Bob gave a half-nod, which was more just a bob of the skull.
"Surely they're not going to try and…" I couldn't even finish that thought out loud. There was no way a bunch of cultists were that stupid. There was no way any ritual would contain instructions on how to do that. Except those women did and nearly killed you and Thomas.
That ritual had simply reached beyond the Outer Gates. It had pulled the Outsider from beyond them, breaching the gates. Actually opening the gates? No, they couldn't be trying to open the Outer Gates. Rituals didn't have that kind of power, even at their worst, did they?
It hadn't taken me long to get home from Union Station. I undid the wards to my house and gave my door a hard shove. I'd had a security door installed a few years back to prevent a number of things from just trying to break into my apartment. It was made of steel, so it had been very strong and sturdy, holding up to a number of attacks. This past October, it had met its match. It turned out that even a steel security door was vulnerable to a mass attack of zombies. Who knew? My brother and I had attempted to fix it ourselves, but neither of us was especially good with construction tools.
I gave the door another hard shove with my shoulder, and it opened. I was quickly greeted by thirty pounds of feline might slamming into my shins. My cat stepped outside for a second, looked around at the snow on the ground, and immediately turned back inside in an imperious manner. It seemed that the cold was a little much for Mister, which was fine for me. I stepped inside after my cat, and waited for Mouse to come out and greet me, the way he usually did when I got home.
Usually, it wouldn't take too long for my dog to come out and lick my hand, but Mouse took a little longer than usual. I stepped further into my freshly cleaned apartment, lit the relatively new candles with a muttered spell, and looked around for him. My dog was nowhere to be found, but there was a note on the table.
Harry,
Took Mouse out for a walk around the park. I'll bring home some Chinese food.
-Thomas
Ah, that made sense. With Thomas bringing back food, I didn't need to worry about fixing anything for myself. Judging from how clean the place was, I'd have to give Pizza Express a call to check my standing order. My little helpers needed to be happy, after all. I would make sure to call when I was done with my lab work, and before I met up with the Wardens. I'd have to fish out the grey cloak to bring along with me when we confronted who was responsible for this, but until then, I was in the clear.
I trudged over to the clumsily trimmed area of carpet that covered the trapdoor that was set into my apartment's floor. I hadn't exactly had the best of artistic ability when it came to trimming carpet for that sort of thing, even before my hand got burned. I pulled open the trapdoor onto a wooden stepladder that folded out and led down into my laboratory.
A few points of reference. My apartment is in the basement of the boarding house, and my lab is in the subbasement, which honestly is a much more elegant word to say than the basement-basement. It's not really much more than a large concrete box with a ladder leading up and out of it. The walls are lined with white wire shelving, the cheap kind you can get at Wal-Mart. Wizarding rarely pays all that well, and I make enough to get by. The shelves in my lab are used to store containers of pretty much every kind, from microwave-safe containers, wooden boxes, plastic dinnerware, plastic zipper bags, and I even have a lead-sealed box where I keep some depleted uranium dust that I use for some ghost hunting. Other shelves contain books, notebooks, envelopes, paper bags, pencils, many different random objects all fight for space on my shelves. The only shelf that remains uncrowded is a lone plain, homemade wooden shelf, which at the time held only candles at either end, three romance novels, the Sports Illustrated Bikini edition, and a bleached human skull.
A long table ran down the middle of the room, leaving a space on the other side clear of any other clutter. Inlaid in the floor was a plain silver ring, my summoning circle. Underneath that, was a foot and a half or so of concrete, beneath which laid another heavy metal box which was wrapped in its own little circle, surrounded by wards and spells. Inside the box was a blackened silver coin, a denarius.
Lasciel's Shadow had appeared to me earlier this evening, after the crime scene. She hadn't even really been trying to get me to take on the coin, not directly anyway, but instead she seemed like she had been trying to help. Would accepting the help of the shadow to puzzle things out really have been so bad? The palm of my left hand, the one that had been so badly burned save for a patch of skin in the shape of Lasciel's angelic symbol, began to itch. Yes, accepting the offer for help would lead to more reliance, which would in turn lead to more manipulation, and eventually I'd pick up that coin. I rubbed the hand against my leg and ignored the itch.
My worktable, at one point, had been crowded with material. Honestly it had been that way for most of the time I had the lab. Ultimately, that was no longer the case. I had begun a project that had eaten up much of my time and funds lately, including most of the funds that I managed to get from the Wardens. It was nowhere near done, and in fact was barely out of the planning stages, but when it was finished, it would be my most complex piece of wizardry yet. Unfortunately, that wasn't what I was down here to do just yet.
"Bob," I said. "Wake up, lazybones."
Reddish-orange flames slowly burned into brightness within the open eye sockets of the skull on the shelf. "Oh, going for the skeletal cracks this early, Harry?" A voice came from within the skull. "So, is it time to work on your model?"
I shook my head. "Not tonight… Well, at least not right now, tonight. I've got a couple cases, and I've got to show a group of Wardens how I do things."
"I thought that mess had been cleared up years ago, Harry, and aren't you a Warden now? Are they going to make you arrest yourself?" Bob asked.
"Not in that way…" I ground out, pausing for emphasis. "I get to show them how I solve a case, hunt down a black magic user. After that event with the Shoggoth, Captain Luccio felt that I was a good choice for this sort of thing. Plus the two cases, one of which is definitely black magic."
"Oh, do tell," Bob sounded genuinely curious. "What sort of case would this be?"
I explained to Bob about the murders at the Sheraton, how the bodies had been prepared for us, and what I'd seen with my Sight. There hadn't been any prints other than that of the victims, how the bodies had been perfectly bisected, and the fact that it was winter meant that there weren't any summer storms to power the thaumaturgy.
"Hmm." Bob said. "It's a real stumper there. Murphy was right to think back to Victor Sells and his methods, but the weather hasn't been very conducive to that sort of work lately. Thaumaturgy definitely is the culprit, but the power had to have been generated in another way. The method of death is telling too."
"How so?" I asked, wanting Bob to continue on his train of thought.
"Come now, boss, even you know that if the point was just the death, they'd just be dead. There was a reason that they were cut in half and reassembled." Bob said, clearly annoyed.
"Yeah, I thought that too, but I couldn't figure out why, other than perhaps to send a message." I shook my head. "But then, the only person who would get that message would be Marcone, and there were probably any number of better targets than Hendricks's sister."
"And the two half thing doesn't make sense with a Marcone target." Bob said. "Maybe we're looking at this the wrong way."
Something didn't quite make sense here. See, Bob was a spirit of air and knowledge who lived within the skull, which protected him and sheltered him. In exchange for that shelter and protection, he had to listen to whoever the current owner of the skull was, provide them guidance and access to his knowledge. There was very little that Bob didn't know about magic. I couldn't believe that he would be stalling here.
"Bob," I said, a bit annoyed. "Quit trying to make me figure it out and tell me already. How did our guy manage to kill the two of them from wherever he was to there?"
"Harry, if I do all the work, you'll never learn." Bob said, matter-of-factly.
"Bob, you know the answer. Tell me." I asked. "And no, you're not getting a ride-along with me or Mister right now because it's too cold for him outside."
"Fine. I still want out and the new Victoria's Secret catalog. I've heard that the Christmas offerings are delightful." Bob said.
"I'll get you the Victoria's Secret and two romance novels. This is the wrong time of year for you to go out." I said. Winter wasn't even in full force yet, and there was ten inches on the ground, almost as if it wanted to choke the remaining bit of summer out early, before the Solstice.
"I'll be careful." Bob whined out. "I haven't been out in ages."
I grit my teeth. Bob could be stubborn when he wanted to be, and while I could just order him to tell me, I tried to limit the amount of direct orders I gave the spirit. After all, Bob was one of my oldest friends, and I couldn't just order him to do everything I wished. It wouldn't be right.
"Fine," I relented. "But only until an hour before sunrise. And I better not hear of any orgies at any fraternities or sororities."
"Of course, sahib. It will be as you say." Bob said, almost too quickly, but my focus was on what I needed to know.
"Bob, the magic, how was it done?" I asked.
"Oh, it's rather obvious that it's a ritual. Invoking the power of some deity for some reason. The specific method of death isn't really typical to any one deity for how they would kill, though. It is, however, similar to a favored sacrifice to a Roman deity. In fact, I wonder if the magic you saw in there was the murder weapon, or if it was the connection to a greater ritual."
"Greater ritual… Which deity is that?"
"The Roman god of doorways, of beginnings and endings, of transitions. Janus. The symmetry, and the opposites are what Janus likes in his sacrifices, but he didn't usually like human sacrifice." Bob said. "But sometimes rituals require more power, and thus require more in exchange."
Janus… My mind flashed to the golden coin in my duster's pocket. Father Forthill had known a bit about the god, and a group that used coins with his face as a calling card were on the way to Chicago. Now another group was killing people, possibly to sacrifice for a ritual which I had no idea of what it could do.
"Bob, what sorts of rituals do you know from Janus?" I asked.
"Not many. My previous owners were less concerned with ritual matters and more concerned with expanding their knowledge and ability with magic without relying on an outside source." Bob said.
I nodded. I was more or less the same way. Ritual magic was potentially nasty stuff, especially if the casters found something from a source that hadn't been done often or by enough people. The less people who had attempted it before, the more potent it would be.
"But, if I had to guess, I would say any rituals about giving birth or having good trade are right out. No, if the ritual requires human sacrifice, then something big is going to happen."
"And given that Janus is the god of doorways…" I started, thinking it over.
"He is also the god of gates and passages." Bob gave a half-nod, which was more just a bob of the skull.
"Surely they're not going to try and…" I couldn't even finish that thought out loud. There was no way a bunch of cultists were that stupid. There was no way any ritual would contain instructions on how to do that. Except those women did and nearly killed you and Thomas.
That ritual had simply reached beyond the Outer Gates. It had pulled the Outsider from beyond them, breaching the gates. Actually opening the gates? No, they couldn't be trying to open the Outer Gates. Rituals didn't have that kind of power, even at their worst, did they?
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Arafell
Verified Cephalon
- Location
- Oregon
Depends how crazy the god is.
I'm sure Janus is of two minds on the subject.
Finagle007
[Verified Great Old One]
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
Tell that to Salina, Harry.
Snippet 8: Dying to Meet You
Ellf
Apprentice Wizard
- Location
- Virginia
Not entirely certain I'm happy about this. Probably could work on the ending a bit more.
Let me get a few things straight about magic. Magic isn't just some power that can be called up on a whim to do your bidding. It is so much more than just that. My mentor, Ebenezar, taught me primarily that magic is life itself. Magic comes from life, from the living, from the very desire to be alive, and anything that messes with that sort of principle is just wrong. The laws of magic that the White Council uses tend to stem from that.
The big one, of course is to not use magic to kill someone. It's why I carry my pistol. We're not supposed to use our power to, directly or indirectly harm someone save in the direst case of self-defense. This doesn't technically get applied when dealing with most nonhuman creatures, something I am very appreciative of. The second law involves transforming others. Basically Polymorph Other in roleplaying terms. Don't do it, it's bad and it can really mess someone up in the head. This also leads into the Third and Fourth Laws, which involves doing magical mind control. It's unpleasant. The Third more leads into the Fourth in that the Third involves actually invading the mind, while the Fourth enslaves it. The Fifth Law is basically No Necromancy. What it really means, in the eyes of the Council, at least, is no necromancy on human subjects, which tend to be the standard subjects that necromancers use anyway. I much prefer Sue and her crushing jaws myself, but again, only in the direst of circumstances. The Sixth Law is against time travel. Don't mess with the flow of time or create paradoxes. Bad juju.
The Seventh Law, of course, is far more relevant to this case, or at least where this case might be going. Thou shall not reach beyond the Outer Gates. Normally, this means do not contact Outsiders, do not help Outsiders, do not even research Outsiders. Naturally, this also means that there are issues with dealing with Outsiders if they become a problem. Magic doesn't work on them properly, or so I've been told. I've only had encounters with one specific one, and the form it took burned just fine the first time. The second, it never had opportunity to form. The ritual found by Thomas's father and used by the three ex-wives of Arturo Genosa merely used a spiritual form for it. They created a channel for it to use to travel through the Outer Gates. If the Janus ritual had the ability to do anything like that or more, I needed to find it and shut it down.
"Harry!" Bob's voice cut through my musings. "Are you alright?"
"Fine, Bob. Just thinking." Rituals… I made mental notes on where I needed to go. Maybe I could send one of the younger Wardens to Bock Ordered Books. I know Bock wouldn't want me back there, but there might have been something about Roman deities there. I'd give Bock a call in the morning to ask about it.
"Well, boss, if you don't need me anymore, I'd like your permission…" Bob sounded eager. I really didn't want to know what he had planned.
"Fine! I give you permission to leave for the evening, but make sure you're back an hour before sunrise. And if I hear about any orgies, I'm tearing up that magazine." I threatened menacingly.
"Jawohl, sahib." I swear Bob gave a mocking tip of his skull before the lights in his eyes started to pour out. Bob isn't really a talking skull. He's really a spirit of Air and Intellect, one of the best tools a (comparatively) young Wizard like me can have, and he's also one of my best friends. Despite everything, I don't mind him going out every once in a while, and he does deserve this. His orangish-yellow glow coalesced into a single ball of light. "Don't worry, Harry. I'll be back…"
Bob shot off, out through the upper floor and presumably out a window into the night sky. I steadfastly ignored the laugh and cry that I must have misheard as he headed out; Bob would do what he needed to. Instead, I turned my attention toward the model and I prepared to do some fixing, but the phone started ringing before I even got the chance to get started.
With a forlorn glance, I headed up the ladder, out of my lab, and I got the phone.
"This is Dresden." Given that I was on a case, had Wardens to worry about, and Father Forthill was counting on me, I needed to be at least a little professional. I could do that, despite what Murphy might have thought.
"Oh good, Harry. You're there. I was afraid that… It doesn't matter, you're there." The voice on the other side brought a smile to my face. Waldo Butters was a friend of mine who works at the Medical Examiner's office. He was clued in, and he was very good at his job, often going above and beyond the realm of duty. He'd been a big help last October, and I was glad that he was going to be involved here.
"Butters, relax. Is everything alright?" Butters had also been attacked last October, and I didn't want to not be there for him if it were to happen again.
"Oh, I'm fine. These bodies though.. Lieutenant Murphy got them assigned to me, since it was an SI case. It's just… It'd probably be better if you came down here yourself to take a look. I've spotted a few things, and I can't really point them out over the phone." This happened occasionally. Assuming I wasn't persona non grata at the morgue, it really wouldn't be an issue. Given the time, Butters's boss probably wouldn't be there or would be on the way out, and I might be able to get the Wardens in. I'd have to warn Butters ahead of time though.
"Butters, I can come on down. Would you mind if I brought in some additional consultants? I'm helping with some training, and this would show them another side. Plus, I could use a second opinion on a few things."
"More? Uh, yes, I think it would be fine. There's room, I suppose. I'll have to turn off a couple computers, won't I?" Butters asked.
"Yeah. You've met two of them already, actually. You probably remember Yoshimo and Ramirez. It's them and two more." I said. "Probably best to keep the computers off and unplugged."
I could hear Butters grimace. "All right. See you… An hour? If that's good for you, I mean."
"Yeah, that should be plenty of time." My stomach growled in protest, but I soldiered on. "Just need to make a few calls before I head on my way."
"See you then, Harry." Butters hung up, and I did the same.
I called my answer service and obtained the number for where the Wardens were staying, room number and all. After that, I called their room, got Ramirez and told him where he needed to go. Luccio had put them up in a suite. Lucky them. Too bad that half of the electronics would be on the fritz after they left, but that's life as a Wizard.
All of forty-five minutes later, I was driving up to what normal people would call the morgue. Of course, in Chicago, you can't really call it that anymore. It's the Forensic Institute now. It's not run by a coroner but a medical examiner. The Forensic Institute is on West Harrison Street, which itself is inside a pretty amazing industrial park that mostly specializes in biotech industries. In the winter air, it was still pretty. It had wide lawns covered in sheets of freshly fallen snow, sculpted trees and bushes with a heavier powder causing some of those branches to bow down lower than they were designed. It's got an amazing view of the Chicago Skyline and a very quick access to the freeway.
Despite everything nice about it, it remains quiet. It's still a place where the dead are brought, a place where a friend of mine had died last Halloween, and it's still a place where I needed to go at this time of night.
I pulled the Loaner into the visitor's parking lot of the complex next door. Habits are hard to break, and though I wasn't using my car for this trip, I didn't want anyone figuring out I was here, even if Butters managed to get me on the visitor's list. Because of this, I managed to walk up just as the cab driving the other Wardens pulled into the actual visitor lot for the Forensic Institute and started letting them out.
I waved to Ramirez when I saw him step out, and I got lockstep with him. "Looks like you found the place alright."
"This is all nice and fancy, Harry, but I'm pretty sure that the ladies wouldn't want to be here." Ramirez said.
"Ooh, Warden Ramirez, you take me to the nicest places." Warden Chase's voice nearly made me jump if not for the sarcastic bite to it. "I'm just sure that this place is just full of oogieness."
I cocked an eyebrow. "Oogieness?"
"It's a word. Look it up." Warden Chase, I really needed to find out her first name, said bluntly. "Of course, we're supposed to deal with that sort of thing, so it's expected. Doesn't mean I like it."
I nodded. "I hope you never do."
Wardens Yoshimo and Meyers joined us as we headed inside. I checked in with the guard, Phil's replacement, and we actually were on the list for once. Well, I was, and my guests were allowed in as well.
"He's down this way." I led everyone down toward Exam room four, the only examination room with music coming out of it.
"Oh dear, am I all out?" A wave of dizziness overcame me for a half a second, and I swear I wasn't in the morgue for a second. I was outside a house, but I couldn't for the life of me say where, but then I was back in the morgue.
"Hey, you okay, man?" Carlos asked.
"Just a lack of good sleep lately, Carlos." I waved it off and knocked on the door to the examination room. "Now, everyone, please be careful not to use any magic unless absolutely necessary in here. Butters is my friend, and he likes his electronics staying in one piece."
"Is that… polka?" Meyers asked, a little confusion dripping in.
"Butters is a bit of an afficianado." I knocked once more, and the music stopped. The morgue faded once more, and I was outside the house, standing with what looked like three pint-sized… somethings.
"I could have sworn I had more candy." They were standing before an old woman with a Jack-o-Lantern bucket. She looked almost grandmotherly. I stood back behind them, just keeping an eye out.
Then I was back in the morgue as the door opened, my hand resting on the doorframe. Something wasn't right. What was going on? Magic was the obvious answer. "Anyone have some chalk with them? Anyone?"
Butters looked up at me. Waldo Butters was not a very large man, so I'm sure he looked up at a lot of people. His wild shock of black hair made it look like he was constantly surprised. Today he wore his blue medical examiner scrubs with fluffy brown bunny slippers, along with his wire-frame glasses.
"Harry, what do you need the chalk for?" Butters, who should have known this considering what I'd taught him last Halloween asked. Of course, considering he didn't know what was going on with me, Hell's Bells, I barely knew what was going on, but I needed to be in a circle, pronto.
"Circle, do you have some, Butters?" I asked as I headed into the examination room, followed by the Wardens. I must have looked rather frantic because the rest of the Wardens were silent as they did so. I'm not so sure who would be targeting me this instant, as I hadn't even really done anything lately other than fighting Red Court. Okay, the Reds could have been targeting me, but this didn't seem like their style.
"Yeah, top-right drawer of the desk." I hurried over to the desk, ignoring the bodies on the slabs, something that was painfully easy to do, and I retrieved the chalk. "Harry, aren't you going to introduce me?"
As I started drawing my circle, I nodded. "Sorry, right. Butters, these are Wardens Yoshimo, Ramirez, Meyers and Chase. You probably remember the first two from October. Guys, this is Waldo Butters, Medical Examiner extraordinaire."
I focused on the circle. Technically I didn't even really need to draw the circle, just focus on forming it mentally. The physical form had little to do with what was actually forming. A circle is about the simplest form of magic that anyone can do, and it will protect from most magic. I wanted to set one up around myself due to whatever was happening to me, and it should have worked.
Should have was the operative word, because the moment I tried to close the circle, I was again standing outside that house with those pint-sized monsters.
"I'm sorry, Mr. Monster… Maybe I ca-" The old woman got cut off as the green-skinned monster lunged at her throat. The red-skinned horned monster started to get in on it. Now that I looked closer, the other two there weren't monsters at all, but they were kids in costume. One dressed as a dentist, and the other dressed as a maid. Those two screamed and ran off the moment the monsters attacked.
"Hey!" I called out at the monsters, dashing forward. "Let go of her!" I brought my staff down on the hands of the monsters, using it as a form of leverage to separate the old woman from them. They yelped and started choking each other once I got them loose of the woman. She retreated into the house, slamming the door shut. I swear I heard it lock.
"Stop that!" I yelled at the monsters in my best authoritative Wizarding voice, but they didn't seem to be wanting to listen. Perhaps my tone was a little off, I didn't feel quite right, but I would separate them. "Ventas! Ventas servitas!"
I called up some wind to separate the little monsters, who, upon separating, dashed out into the night. I breathed a small sigh of relief, but at the same time, I needed to figure out what was going on. The immediate danger had passed, so I took a look around. Clearly, I wasn't at the morgue anymore, and I had my staff, both of which things that should not be at the moment. I was outside a house, one with what looked like a balloon ghost face covering its porchlight, and there was a Jack-o-Lantern burning bright next to the door. It clearly wasn't snowing here, and in fact, the trees held green leaves. It was still night; the sun was down for certain, and everything just felt… off.
"Focus, Dresden." I told myself, and then frowned. That hadn't sounded right, nor had my spells for that matter. The world too, seemed larger, taller, or maybe I was shorter. I looked down at myself. I was wearing clothes similar to what I had been wearing earlier. My leather duster fit perfectly, I wore a tee shirt, and some jeans, but also some sneakers. Oh, and when I tipped my head down, my hair went into my face a bit, red hair. My red straight hair ended up in my face, as I peered down at my chest.
So, whoever did this spell had broken a few of the Laws, I supposed. What was one more in the grand scheme of things? I must confess, as a guy I had been curious, but I was a guy, as a redhead on Halloween. I didn't know what the hell was going on, but I was going to find out and make them fix it. I also couldn't help but wonder about an implication. Did it really count if your birthday happened twice in the same year?
Let me get a few things straight about magic. Magic isn't just some power that can be called up on a whim to do your bidding. It is so much more than just that. My mentor, Ebenezar, taught me primarily that magic is life itself. Magic comes from life, from the living, from the very desire to be alive, and anything that messes with that sort of principle is just wrong. The laws of magic that the White Council uses tend to stem from that.
The big one, of course is to not use magic to kill someone. It's why I carry my pistol. We're not supposed to use our power to, directly or indirectly harm someone save in the direst case of self-defense. This doesn't technically get applied when dealing with most nonhuman creatures, something I am very appreciative of. The second law involves transforming others. Basically Polymorph Other in roleplaying terms. Don't do it, it's bad and it can really mess someone up in the head. This also leads into the Third and Fourth Laws, which involves doing magical mind control. It's unpleasant. The Third more leads into the Fourth in that the Third involves actually invading the mind, while the Fourth enslaves it. The Fifth Law is basically No Necromancy. What it really means, in the eyes of the Council, at least, is no necromancy on human subjects, which tend to be the standard subjects that necromancers use anyway. I much prefer Sue and her crushing jaws myself, but again, only in the direst of circumstances. The Sixth Law is against time travel. Don't mess with the flow of time or create paradoxes. Bad juju.
The Seventh Law, of course, is far more relevant to this case, or at least where this case might be going. Thou shall not reach beyond the Outer Gates. Normally, this means do not contact Outsiders, do not help Outsiders, do not even research Outsiders. Naturally, this also means that there are issues with dealing with Outsiders if they become a problem. Magic doesn't work on them properly, or so I've been told. I've only had encounters with one specific one, and the form it took burned just fine the first time. The second, it never had opportunity to form. The ritual found by Thomas's father and used by the three ex-wives of Arturo Genosa merely used a spiritual form for it. They created a channel for it to use to travel through the Outer Gates. If the Janus ritual had the ability to do anything like that or more, I needed to find it and shut it down.
"Harry!" Bob's voice cut through my musings. "Are you alright?"
"Fine, Bob. Just thinking." Rituals… I made mental notes on where I needed to go. Maybe I could send one of the younger Wardens to Bock Ordered Books. I know Bock wouldn't want me back there, but there might have been something about Roman deities there. I'd give Bock a call in the morning to ask about it.
"Well, boss, if you don't need me anymore, I'd like your permission…" Bob sounded eager. I really didn't want to know what he had planned.
"Fine! I give you permission to leave for the evening, but make sure you're back an hour before sunrise. And if I hear about any orgies, I'm tearing up that magazine." I threatened menacingly.
"Jawohl, sahib." I swear Bob gave a mocking tip of his skull before the lights in his eyes started to pour out. Bob isn't really a talking skull. He's really a spirit of Air and Intellect, one of the best tools a (comparatively) young Wizard like me can have, and he's also one of my best friends. Despite everything, I don't mind him going out every once in a while, and he does deserve this. His orangish-yellow glow coalesced into a single ball of light. "Don't worry, Harry. I'll be back…"
Bob shot off, out through the upper floor and presumably out a window into the night sky. I steadfastly ignored the laugh and cry that I must have misheard as he headed out; Bob would do what he needed to. Instead, I turned my attention toward the model and I prepared to do some fixing, but the phone started ringing before I even got the chance to get started.
With a forlorn glance, I headed up the ladder, out of my lab, and I got the phone.
"This is Dresden." Given that I was on a case, had Wardens to worry about, and Father Forthill was counting on me, I needed to be at least a little professional. I could do that, despite what Murphy might have thought.
"Oh good, Harry. You're there. I was afraid that… It doesn't matter, you're there." The voice on the other side brought a smile to my face. Waldo Butters was a friend of mine who works at the Medical Examiner's office. He was clued in, and he was very good at his job, often going above and beyond the realm of duty. He'd been a big help last October, and I was glad that he was going to be involved here.
"Butters, relax. Is everything alright?" Butters had also been attacked last October, and I didn't want to not be there for him if it were to happen again.
"Oh, I'm fine. These bodies though.. Lieutenant Murphy got them assigned to me, since it was an SI case. It's just… It'd probably be better if you came down here yourself to take a look. I've spotted a few things, and I can't really point them out over the phone." This happened occasionally. Assuming I wasn't persona non grata at the morgue, it really wouldn't be an issue. Given the time, Butters's boss probably wouldn't be there or would be on the way out, and I might be able to get the Wardens in. I'd have to warn Butters ahead of time though.
"Butters, I can come on down. Would you mind if I brought in some additional consultants? I'm helping with some training, and this would show them another side. Plus, I could use a second opinion on a few things."
"More? Uh, yes, I think it would be fine. There's room, I suppose. I'll have to turn off a couple computers, won't I?" Butters asked.
"Yeah. You've met two of them already, actually. You probably remember Yoshimo and Ramirez. It's them and two more." I said. "Probably best to keep the computers off and unplugged."
I could hear Butters grimace. "All right. See you… An hour? If that's good for you, I mean."
"Yeah, that should be plenty of time." My stomach growled in protest, but I soldiered on. "Just need to make a few calls before I head on my way."
"See you then, Harry." Butters hung up, and I did the same.
I called my answer service and obtained the number for where the Wardens were staying, room number and all. After that, I called their room, got Ramirez and told him where he needed to go. Luccio had put them up in a suite. Lucky them. Too bad that half of the electronics would be on the fritz after they left, but that's life as a Wizard.
All of forty-five minutes later, I was driving up to what normal people would call the morgue. Of course, in Chicago, you can't really call it that anymore. It's the Forensic Institute now. It's not run by a coroner but a medical examiner. The Forensic Institute is on West Harrison Street, which itself is inside a pretty amazing industrial park that mostly specializes in biotech industries. In the winter air, it was still pretty. It had wide lawns covered in sheets of freshly fallen snow, sculpted trees and bushes with a heavier powder causing some of those branches to bow down lower than they were designed. It's got an amazing view of the Chicago Skyline and a very quick access to the freeway.
Despite everything nice about it, it remains quiet. It's still a place where the dead are brought, a place where a friend of mine had died last Halloween, and it's still a place where I needed to go at this time of night.
I pulled the Loaner into the visitor's parking lot of the complex next door. Habits are hard to break, and though I wasn't using my car for this trip, I didn't want anyone figuring out I was here, even if Butters managed to get me on the visitor's list. Because of this, I managed to walk up just as the cab driving the other Wardens pulled into the actual visitor lot for the Forensic Institute and started letting them out.
I waved to Ramirez when I saw him step out, and I got lockstep with him. "Looks like you found the place alright."
"This is all nice and fancy, Harry, but I'm pretty sure that the ladies wouldn't want to be here." Ramirez said.
"Ooh, Warden Ramirez, you take me to the nicest places." Warden Chase's voice nearly made me jump if not for the sarcastic bite to it. "I'm just sure that this place is just full of oogieness."
I cocked an eyebrow. "Oogieness?"
"It's a word. Look it up." Warden Chase, I really needed to find out her first name, said bluntly. "Of course, we're supposed to deal with that sort of thing, so it's expected. Doesn't mean I like it."
I nodded. "I hope you never do."
Wardens Yoshimo and Meyers joined us as we headed inside. I checked in with the guard, Phil's replacement, and we actually were on the list for once. Well, I was, and my guests were allowed in as well.
"He's down this way." I led everyone down toward Exam room four, the only examination room with music coming out of it.
"Oh dear, am I all out?" A wave of dizziness overcame me for a half a second, and I swear I wasn't in the morgue for a second. I was outside a house, but I couldn't for the life of me say where, but then I was back in the morgue.
"Hey, you okay, man?" Carlos asked.
"Just a lack of good sleep lately, Carlos." I waved it off and knocked on the door to the examination room. "Now, everyone, please be careful not to use any magic unless absolutely necessary in here. Butters is my friend, and he likes his electronics staying in one piece."
"Is that… polka?" Meyers asked, a little confusion dripping in.
"Butters is a bit of an afficianado." I knocked once more, and the music stopped. The morgue faded once more, and I was outside the house, standing with what looked like three pint-sized… somethings.
"I could have sworn I had more candy." They were standing before an old woman with a Jack-o-Lantern bucket. She looked almost grandmotherly. I stood back behind them, just keeping an eye out.
Then I was back in the morgue as the door opened, my hand resting on the doorframe. Something wasn't right. What was going on? Magic was the obvious answer. "Anyone have some chalk with them? Anyone?"
Butters looked up at me. Waldo Butters was not a very large man, so I'm sure he looked up at a lot of people. His wild shock of black hair made it look like he was constantly surprised. Today he wore his blue medical examiner scrubs with fluffy brown bunny slippers, along with his wire-frame glasses.
"Harry, what do you need the chalk for?" Butters, who should have known this considering what I'd taught him last Halloween asked. Of course, considering he didn't know what was going on with me, Hell's Bells, I barely knew what was going on, but I needed to be in a circle, pronto.
"Circle, do you have some, Butters?" I asked as I headed into the examination room, followed by the Wardens. I must have looked rather frantic because the rest of the Wardens were silent as they did so. I'm not so sure who would be targeting me this instant, as I hadn't even really done anything lately other than fighting Red Court. Okay, the Reds could have been targeting me, but this didn't seem like their style.
"Yeah, top-right drawer of the desk." I hurried over to the desk, ignoring the bodies on the slabs, something that was painfully easy to do, and I retrieved the chalk. "Harry, aren't you going to introduce me?"
As I started drawing my circle, I nodded. "Sorry, right. Butters, these are Wardens Yoshimo, Ramirez, Meyers and Chase. You probably remember the first two from October. Guys, this is Waldo Butters, Medical Examiner extraordinaire."
I focused on the circle. Technically I didn't even really need to draw the circle, just focus on forming it mentally. The physical form had little to do with what was actually forming. A circle is about the simplest form of magic that anyone can do, and it will protect from most magic. I wanted to set one up around myself due to whatever was happening to me, and it should have worked.
Should have was the operative word, because the moment I tried to close the circle, I was again standing outside that house with those pint-sized monsters.
"I'm sorry, Mr. Monster… Maybe I ca-" The old woman got cut off as the green-skinned monster lunged at her throat. The red-skinned horned monster started to get in on it. Now that I looked closer, the other two there weren't monsters at all, but they were kids in costume. One dressed as a dentist, and the other dressed as a maid. Those two screamed and ran off the moment the monsters attacked.
"Hey!" I called out at the monsters, dashing forward. "Let go of her!" I brought my staff down on the hands of the monsters, using it as a form of leverage to separate the old woman from them. They yelped and started choking each other once I got them loose of the woman. She retreated into the house, slamming the door shut. I swear I heard it lock.
"Stop that!" I yelled at the monsters in my best authoritative Wizarding voice, but they didn't seem to be wanting to listen. Perhaps my tone was a little off, I didn't feel quite right, but I would separate them. "Ventas! Ventas servitas!"
I called up some wind to separate the little monsters, who, upon separating, dashed out into the night. I breathed a small sigh of relief, but at the same time, I needed to figure out what was going on. The immediate danger had passed, so I took a look around. Clearly, I wasn't at the morgue anymore, and I had my staff, both of which things that should not be at the moment. I was outside a house, one with what looked like a balloon ghost face covering its porchlight, and there was a Jack-o-Lantern burning bright next to the door. It clearly wasn't snowing here, and in fact, the trees held green leaves. It was still night; the sun was down for certain, and everything just felt… off.
"Focus, Dresden." I told myself, and then frowned. That hadn't sounded right, nor had my spells for that matter. The world too, seemed larger, taller, or maybe I was shorter. I looked down at myself. I was wearing clothes similar to what I had been wearing earlier. My leather duster fit perfectly, I wore a tee shirt, and some jeans, but also some sneakers. Oh, and when I tipped my head down, my hair went into my face a bit, red hair. My red straight hair ended up in my face, as I peered down at my chest.
So, whoever did this spell had broken a few of the Laws, I supposed. What was one more in the grand scheme of things? I must confess, as a guy I had been curious, but I was a guy, as a redhead on Halloween. I didn't know what the hell was going on, but I was going to find out and make them fix it. I also couldn't help but wonder about an implication. Did it really count if your birthday happened twice in the same year?
Finagle007
[Verified Great Old One]
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
YAHF, I see. What poor shlub dressed as... wait, I know this... Xander, right?
Finagle007
[Verified Great Old One]
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
Neglected the hair. Also, never actually watched Buffy the Vampire Layer.
- Location
- plattsburgh
red hair and a girl im guessing willow
Amorous Intent
Love the future
- Location
- Octavia, Venus
- Pronouns
- She/her
I notice he forgot to mention the large fedora he's inevitably wearing. 
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GiovanniBlasini
Transhumanist Nutcase from Niops IX
- Location
- San Diego, CA, USA, Sol III
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Holy crap. Warden Cordy is already trippy enough, but a Willow who follows the Seven Laws?
RocjawCypher
The Chivalrous Coder
I've seen a number of these fics before- it's definitely a popular place for crossovers im the BTVS universe. That said, never have I come across one so well written and so well executed. I got the crossover the moment I saw Janus, but even then it took until now to get the title- "The Wind in the Willows," beautiful.
Great job on capturing harry, the universe, and the tone of Butcher, and I can not Wait for more. This is excellent!
Great job on capturing harry, the universe, and the tone of Butcher, and I can not Wait for more. This is excellent!
Snippet 9: Halloween.
Ellf
Apprentice Wizard
- Location
- Virginia
Wish I could output this every day.
Okay, let's take stock. Fact one. I was very obviously no longer in Chicago. Where I was, I hadn't been able to establish yet, but when I was… was a completely different story. Fact two. It was Halloween. Whatever magic that had been cast to bring me here was in blatant violation of the Sixth Law. Halloween had been a few months ago for me, involved lots of zombies, rotting flesh, and a ride on Sue the T-Rex, but it was quite obvious from the décor set up that today, or rather tonight was Halloween in this town. Fact three, perhaps the most important fact. I was no longer myself. I was no longer my own gender, and as much as I get teased about it by Murphy, I like being a man. I like being the man. No matter, I couldn't change the situation at the moment, so I'd have to deal. Fact four, I had all of my magical implements. Inside my coat was my blasting rod, around my ungloved left wrist was my old shield bracelet, in pristine condition even, on my right hand were my force rings, and in my right hand was my staff. I was loaded for bear, and everything fit, as if it were sized for my new self. Weird, right? A glance toward my exposed hand's palm showed that it wasn't the disfigured blackened husk I'd become used to the past year, but instead it was a dainty feminine thing befitting the body I was in.
The first thing I needed to do was figure out where I was. It didn't feel like I was in the Nevernever, but there were places within it that could easily be just as real as this. I didn't want to chance opening my own Way here, given that I didn't even know where I was. So instead I made my way out into the streets as chaos erupted around me. Child-sized monsters chased others, and older-sized beings made their way around the suburban sprawl that I'd found myself in. I could see cars in the streets, some moving, some stopped, and on some sidewalks, containers full of candy laid on their sides.
I wasn't going to chance opening my Sight here, but the more I walked around, the more tempted I was. Whatever was going on surely was the result of some thaumaturgical spell. It had to be in order to have an effect this great. It could even have been a ritual of some sort, probably calling upon some being of power to drag its influence down upon this townscape and reach across time and space to bring me here. But what I couldn't figure out was one simple question. Why? Why bother doing this? Bringing me here specifically? I couldn't figure if it had something to do with the case I was working or not, but it must have been likely. I'd have to figure it out once I got back to Chicago, or if I found out that wasn't possible.
"Help! Help me!" A girl's scream reached my ears, and I stirred into action, making my way past some parked cars, staff parallel to the ground. The girl screamed out again, and it wasn't long before I beheld her. I had to blink a couple times. The girl looked remarkably similar to Warden Chase, albeit at least a decade younger than the woman I met. She also was dressed in a spotted catgirl outfit, further cementing the date into my mind; nobody dressed like that on a day that wasn't Halloween. The thing she ran from appeared to be a remarkably smaller version of a loup-garou. I wasn't having any of that.
"Hey, Ugly! Pick on someone your own weight class!" I leveled my staff at it, and gathered some power. "Ventas! Ventas Servitas!"
I hooked the wind into the face of the beast, flipping it head over heel backward into the glass window of a nearby building. The paint on it clearly said "Magic Box," or well, it did before it shattered under the beast's mass. Smaller monsters scattered upon the impact, running to find easier targets.
"Get behind me, Miss Chase!" I called out to her, as I stepped toward the store front. If that thing had been anything like Harley MacFinn, that was barely a love tap to it. It was dark inside the store, and I couldn't clearly see, so I stilled myself and Listened.
Listening isn't really a form of magic so much as it is a form of concentration. I focused on what my ears were telling me directing my focus into the battered storefront and ignoring Miss Chase's mumblings. Inside the shop, I heard the beast coming to its feet, the glass crunching beneath its paws. I could hear its low growl, the creaking of the shop's floorboards as it adjusted its weight to its rear haunches in preparation for a leap. It was preparing for a surprise attack. Too bad for it. I tensed up my grip on my staff and raised my left hand, shaking out my shield bracelet.
"What are you doing, Rosenberg?" The cat dressed girl, Chase asked. Without anyone else around, she had to have been talking to me. I'd have to deal with that after mini-MacFinn did his thing. Timing was very important.
I heard the glass crunch and upon the beast's roar, I cried out, "DEFENDARIUS!"
My shield flickered to life in the form of a translucent silvered disc hovering between me and the micro-garou. My old bracelet's shield might not have the protection from heat and other energies, but it had enough for the kinetic energy coming my way. The beast slammed teeth and claws into the shield, its momentum pushing against it hard. Planting my feet, I took my staff into my left hand and used my shield to redirect the beast down onto the streetside, making sure to keep myself between Miss Chase and it. I felt my rings and grinned.
My silver force rings operated off of similar principles to my original copper one. Inside each ring was a rune array that allowed the storage of kinetic energy. Each time I moved my hand, my arm, or flexed it, a little bit of the kinetic energy generated from that movement would be stored within the ring. I could, at a time of my choosing, unleash all of the force stored within. All four of my rings were full.
When mini-MacFinn got to his feet and charged at me again, I dropped my shield and unleashed the brunt of a single ring onto it, blasting it backward into a lamp post. It let out a whimper and then dashed away.
"That's right, you better run." I called out after it before turning toward my unfortunate rescue. Miss Chase had addressed me by the name Rosenberg, like she knew me. I needed to know some more. Perhaps she might know something about what was going on.
"What the heck is going on here, Willow? First, everything's fine and we're taking the kids and then I'm running from Jojo the dog-faced boy! And you're rescuing me with big weird stuff. Something woogie is going on and I don't like it!" Willow. She'd addressed me as Willow now, after having addressed me as Rosenberg earlier. She thought I was someone named Willow Rosenberg. Wasn't that..? "With something this woogie going on, shouldn't Buffy be getting to work, finding something to, I don't know… slay?"
Hell's Bells. This girl thought I was Willow Rosenberg from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and I couldn't very well fault her for her assumption if I looked how I thought. Assuming she was telling the truth, and I had no reason to doubt that, given how she'd continued carrying on about the night as I was considering things, the girl probably wasn't lying. I needed to interrupt her so I could actually get some clarification.
"Stars and Stones, girl, are you going to just keep going on like that?" I paused. "Don't answer that one, please. I don't want to know how long you can keep that up. So, it seems like you think I'm someone I'm not. My name is Harry Dresden."
"Willow, what are you talking about?" She looked confused, so I decided I'd have to emphasize the point a bit more.
"I am not Willow Rosenberg. I am Harry Dresden." I locked eyes with her for a small moment, looking away as I felt the telltale pull of the Soulgaze. "But you are… Cordelia Chase, right?"
I was proud of myself that I could remember a character name from a TV Series that I'd only watched a few times. Elaine had been the fan of the series, not me, but I'd watched it with her on a couple of our outings while we were with Justin.
"Duh!" Cordelia answered. "Okay, so you're not Willow. You're Harry, and you can do woogie things. What's going on here?"
"I wish I could say. One moment I was in Chicago, and now I'm here… in Sunnyvale? No, Sunnydale. Magic's obviously involved, but I couldn't tell you much about it right now. What can you tell me about what you experienced?" I asked Cordelia, carefully avoiding the tear in her costume with my eyes.
"Well, one minute I was escorting those kids trick-or-treating like Snyder ordered me to. The next minute, they weren't kids anymore, and you saw Jojo who was chasing me. I think I also saw Larry Blaisdell dressed as a pirate, chasing some girl in a fancy dress." Cordelia paused, and I thought. That fit with what I saw glimpses of before I fully got here. The kids were lining up to trick-or-treat with that old woman, and then… chaos. They weren't kids anymore. The costumes had taken over.
"So the kids turned into their costumes then… and Willow did too." Was I even myself here? Or was I just the generation of some spell that affected Willow? Or was I possessing this body? I didn't feel like I was enacting a form of possession, but I wasn't entirely sure how that was supposed to feel from the possessor's end. "So I'm the costume Willow wore. Okay, that's fine. Why are you unaffected? I wonder... You definitely aren't a cat."
"No, I'm not." Cordelia sniffed and then looked down at her costume again. "Oh, damnit, why couldn't you have rescued me before Jojo the dog faced boy tore my costume? Partytown will never give me my deposit back now."
"It's not that big a tear…" I started to say, but a chilling roar cut me off. I turned toward the source, pulling out my blasting rod. Cordelia wisely decided to stand behind me, just as I'd placed her when dealing with the child loup-garou, and I looked toward where the roar had come from. "That's… not a good sound…"
What the roar came from could have been a grizzly bear, if the grizzly bear had managed to sprout an extra pair of legs between its normal two pairs. Or if the grizzly had managed to sprout a pair of ram's horns that wrap around the sides of its head. Perhaps it could have been a bear if the bear somehow managed to have an extra pair of eyes right over the second, one glowing orange, the other green. Of course, bears didn't typically have luminous runic tattoos swirling on their foreheads nor did they have two rows of serrated teeth coated with slime. No, the source of the roar wasn't a bear.
"Hell's Bells… It's Ursiel." I turned toward Cordelia. "Time to run."
Okay, let's take stock. Fact one. I was very obviously no longer in Chicago. Where I was, I hadn't been able to establish yet, but when I was… was a completely different story. Fact two. It was Halloween. Whatever magic that had been cast to bring me here was in blatant violation of the Sixth Law. Halloween had been a few months ago for me, involved lots of zombies, rotting flesh, and a ride on Sue the T-Rex, but it was quite obvious from the décor set up that today, or rather tonight was Halloween in this town. Fact three, perhaps the most important fact. I was no longer myself. I was no longer my own gender, and as much as I get teased about it by Murphy, I like being a man. I like being the man. No matter, I couldn't change the situation at the moment, so I'd have to deal. Fact four, I had all of my magical implements. Inside my coat was my blasting rod, around my ungloved left wrist was my old shield bracelet, in pristine condition even, on my right hand were my force rings, and in my right hand was my staff. I was loaded for bear, and everything fit, as if it were sized for my new self. Weird, right? A glance toward my exposed hand's palm showed that it wasn't the disfigured blackened husk I'd become used to the past year, but instead it was a dainty feminine thing befitting the body I was in.
The first thing I needed to do was figure out where I was. It didn't feel like I was in the Nevernever, but there were places within it that could easily be just as real as this. I didn't want to chance opening my own Way here, given that I didn't even know where I was. So instead I made my way out into the streets as chaos erupted around me. Child-sized monsters chased others, and older-sized beings made their way around the suburban sprawl that I'd found myself in. I could see cars in the streets, some moving, some stopped, and on some sidewalks, containers full of candy laid on their sides.
I wasn't going to chance opening my Sight here, but the more I walked around, the more tempted I was. Whatever was going on surely was the result of some thaumaturgical spell. It had to be in order to have an effect this great. It could even have been a ritual of some sort, probably calling upon some being of power to drag its influence down upon this townscape and reach across time and space to bring me here. But what I couldn't figure out was one simple question. Why? Why bother doing this? Bringing me here specifically? I couldn't figure if it had something to do with the case I was working or not, but it must have been likely. I'd have to figure it out once I got back to Chicago, or if I found out that wasn't possible.
"Help! Help me!" A girl's scream reached my ears, and I stirred into action, making my way past some parked cars, staff parallel to the ground. The girl screamed out again, and it wasn't long before I beheld her. I had to blink a couple times. The girl looked remarkably similar to Warden Chase, albeit at least a decade younger than the woman I met. She also was dressed in a spotted catgirl outfit, further cementing the date into my mind; nobody dressed like that on a day that wasn't Halloween. The thing she ran from appeared to be a remarkably smaller version of a loup-garou. I wasn't having any of that.
"Hey, Ugly! Pick on someone your own weight class!" I leveled my staff at it, and gathered some power. "Ventas! Ventas Servitas!"
I hooked the wind into the face of the beast, flipping it head over heel backward into the glass window of a nearby building. The paint on it clearly said "Magic Box," or well, it did before it shattered under the beast's mass. Smaller monsters scattered upon the impact, running to find easier targets.
"Get behind me, Miss Chase!" I called out to her, as I stepped toward the store front. If that thing had been anything like Harley MacFinn, that was barely a love tap to it. It was dark inside the store, and I couldn't clearly see, so I stilled myself and Listened.
Listening isn't really a form of magic so much as it is a form of concentration. I focused on what my ears were telling me directing my focus into the battered storefront and ignoring Miss Chase's mumblings. Inside the shop, I heard the beast coming to its feet, the glass crunching beneath its paws. I could hear its low growl, the creaking of the shop's floorboards as it adjusted its weight to its rear haunches in preparation for a leap. It was preparing for a surprise attack. Too bad for it. I tensed up my grip on my staff and raised my left hand, shaking out my shield bracelet.
"What are you doing, Rosenberg?" The cat dressed girl, Chase asked. Without anyone else around, she had to have been talking to me. I'd have to deal with that after mini-MacFinn did his thing. Timing was very important.
I heard the glass crunch and upon the beast's roar, I cried out, "DEFENDARIUS!"
My shield flickered to life in the form of a translucent silvered disc hovering between me and the micro-garou. My old bracelet's shield might not have the protection from heat and other energies, but it had enough for the kinetic energy coming my way. The beast slammed teeth and claws into the shield, its momentum pushing against it hard. Planting my feet, I took my staff into my left hand and used my shield to redirect the beast down onto the streetside, making sure to keep myself between Miss Chase and it. I felt my rings and grinned.
My silver force rings operated off of similar principles to my original copper one. Inside each ring was a rune array that allowed the storage of kinetic energy. Each time I moved my hand, my arm, or flexed it, a little bit of the kinetic energy generated from that movement would be stored within the ring. I could, at a time of my choosing, unleash all of the force stored within. All four of my rings were full.
When mini-MacFinn got to his feet and charged at me again, I dropped my shield and unleashed the brunt of a single ring onto it, blasting it backward into a lamp post. It let out a whimper and then dashed away.
"That's right, you better run." I called out after it before turning toward my unfortunate rescue. Miss Chase had addressed me by the name Rosenberg, like she knew me. I needed to know some more. Perhaps she might know something about what was going on.
"What the heck is going on here, Willow? First, everything's fine and we're taking the kids and then I'm running from Jojo the dog-faced boy! And you're rescuing me with big weird stuff. Something woogie is going on and I don't like it!" Willow. She'd addressed me as Willow now, after having addressed me as Rosenberg earlier. She thought I was someone named Willow Rosenberg. Wasn't that..? "With something this woogie going on, shouldn't Buffy be getting to work, finding something to, I don't know… slay?"
Hell's Bells. This girl thought I was Willow Rosenberg from Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and I couldn't very well fault her for her assumption if I looked how I thought. Assuming she was telling the truth, and I had no reason to doubt that, given how she'd continued carrying on about the night as I was considering things, the girl probably wasn't lying. I needed to interrupt her so I could actually get some clarification.
"Stars and Stones, girl, are you going to just keep going on like that?" I paused. "Don't answer that one, please. I don't want to know how long you can keep that up. So, it seems like you think I'm someone I'm not. My name is Harry Dresden."
"Willow, what are you talking about?" She looked confused, so I decided I'd have to emphasize the point a bit more.
"I am not Willow Rosenberg. I am Harry Dresden." I locked eyes with her for a small moment, looking away as I felt the telltale pull of the Soulgaze. "But you are… Cordelia Chase, right?"
I was proud of myself that I could remember a character name from a TV Series that I'd only watched a few times. Elaine had been the fan of the series, not me, but I'd watched it with her on a couple of our outings while we were with Justin.
"Duh!" Cordelia answered. "Okay, so you're not Willow. You're Harry, and you can do woogie things. What's going on here?"
"I wish I could say. One moment I was in Chicago, and now I'm here… in Sunnyvale? No, Sunnydale. Magic's obviously involved, but I couldn't tell you much about it right now. What can you tell me about what you experienced?" I asked Cordelia, carefully avoiding the tear in her costume with my eyes.
"Well, one minute I was escorting those kids trick-or-treating like Snyder ordered me to. The next minute, they weren't kids anymore, and you saw Jojo who was chasing me. I think I also saw Larry Blaisdell dressed as a pirate, chasing some girl in a fancy dress." Cordelia paused, and I thought. That fit with what I saw glimpses of before I fully got here. The kids were lining up to trick-or-treat with that old woman, and then… chaos. They weren't kids anymore. The costumes had taken over.
"So the kids turned into their costumes then… and Willow did too." Was I even myself here? Or was I just the generation of some spell that affected Willow? Or was I possessing this body? I didn't feel like I was enacting a form of possession, but I wasn't entirely sure how that was supposed to feel from the possessor's end. "So I'm the costume Willow wore. Okay, that's fine. Why are you unaffected? I wonder... You definitely aren't a cat."
"No, I'm not." Cordelia sniffed and then looked down at her costume again. "Oh, damnit, why couldn't you have rescued me before Jojo the dog faced boy tore my costume? Partytown will never give me my deposit back now."
"It's not that big a tear…" I started to say, but a chilling roar cut me off. I turned toward the source, pulling out my blasting rod. Cordelia wisely decided to stand behind me, just as I'd placed her when dealing with the child loup-garou, and I looked toward where the roar had come from. "That's… not a good sound…"
What the roar came from could have been a grizzly bear, if the grizzly bear had managed to sprout an extra pair of legs between its normal two pairs. Or if the grizzly had managed to sprout a pair of ram's horns that wrap around the sides of its head. Perhaps it could have been a bear if the bear somehow managed to have an extra pair of eyes right over the second, one glowing orange, the other green. Of course, bears didn't typically have luminous runic tattoos swirling on their foreheads nor did they have two rows of serrated teeth coated with slime. No, the source of the roar wasn't a bear.
"Hell's Bells… It's Ursiel." I turned toward Cordelia. "Time to run."
Finagle007
[Verified Great Old One]
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
Ah fuck. Where's a Knight of the Cross when you need one?
Arafell
Verified Cephalon
- Location
- Oregon