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WHO: Cassian and Sanzo in one, Cassian and Amberdrake in another
WHAT: DINNER TIME and A brief material run
WHEN: Shortly after Christmas, before the shops in Fayren close.
WHERE: Everglade and Fayren
WARNINGS: Gore, violence, mentions of cannibalism

4 SANZO
He'd gone too long. He knew he'd over extended himself, the gift he got from Tannusen could only last so long. Wheezing, stiff, the faint sound of flutes beginning to sound in the back of his mind, tonight had to be the night. He wasn't going to risk it all again, he couldn't. He couldn't keep relying on someone else here to patch him up every time he fell into shit.

He was a grown man. He could take care of this.

As it had been for two thousand years, the hunt was on. As it had been for two thousand years, the iron dagger found its mark, the husk soulless yes, but oh how they screamed like any real living thing would. Once, perhaps, he would have shrunk away from the sound. A long time ago, he'd be frantic to silence them, clumsily slashing at vocal cords and sobbing in fear and horror-

He knew how to work now, and the screaming was quickly silenced to pathetic, wet gurgling as the cloaked man snapped ribs with ease, feeling the rippling sensation of that thing pulsing in the back of his head, feeding his meager strength. Peeling the membrane off the heart. Sinking his teeth in and silencing the husk forever.

Blood everywhere. It stank of it, but the pain in his body and his lungs faded with every bite, even if it couldn't fully sate the beast. Just another bandaid.

But for now, it would do.
4 Amberdrake

Of course, Everglade wouldn't have the materials he needed. No one would stock in the type of silver he required, and he didn't even ask any shops there. Seemed like a good way to get a lot of unwanted attention. So, wrapped up in fleece and wool, cranky and miserable and cold, headed for Fayren.

They'd have what he needed, or at least part of it. He could always return home and finish blessing it all later. He had some energy in his step now, so the little man was going to be quite the obnoxious terror in Fayren, picky and fussy with everything he picked up, viciously haggling every single object down.

"I'll only be takin' pure silver, and not anything else. I don't want any steel or nickle in any of this- What else is in this mirror? Oi! Tis a real question, does it look like I'm foolin' with ye?"

Yeah. Not a good day for Fayren.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

It happened to be the couch Drake was sitting on, of course, and Drake lifted his other leg up onto the cushions to stay out of the way. "Cassian, it's fine, it's just a frog," he chuckled, "it'll come out at some point, I'm sure. Come on," he reached down to tap the man on the back, his tone gently teasing, "don't re-break those ribs right in front of me!"

hello darkness my old friend

He could not have been more humiliated, currently, and the gray of his face had actually turned a vague pink as he just... went to bury his whole face in the satchel and wheeze out a long, miserable sigh.

That's the image now. Crawled out from under the couch, standing in Amberdrake's office, hoping now that he might suffocate in the satchel and end his pain right here and now.

"I'm going to die."

"Just sit down first, please. You're going to cramp my neck," Amberdrake patted the other side of the couch, and shifted his leg back down onto the floor.

Thump. Aaand onto the couch he flopped, earning a loud, rough "FECK" from the frog under the couch.

No words, he has no words at all, he's just going to sit here and hope the topic gets changed immediately.

Amberdrake half-turned on his end of the couch, leaning against the back. As with everything he did while 'in public' -- yes, that included in his own office -- it was graceful with seemingly zero effort. "There's nothing to be embarrassed by," he chuckled, "that's quite the impressive -- accidental, you said? -- enchantment. It took my people thousands of years of magical tinkering and selective breeding to create our birds."

"Mate, to be fair it took me a straight thousand years of tinkerin' to make that bloody spell." And he missed the cat.

"Wasn't supposed to be for the frogs, tried to catch the cat and tripped over a rock into the frog pond. Whole ponds enchanted now." Frankly, maybe anything that drank out of it might have their language centers fucked with, but he wasn't in any hurry to find out.

"You... wanted a cat that just says whatever comes to its mind?" Amberdrake laughed at that, because has Cassian ever met a cat? Obviously, since he had one he was trying to enchant, but... seriously.

"You're probably lucky you missed."

"Oi, the cat was infertile, the frogs however-"

"ye clumsy cross eyed idjit, couldn't catch a feckin' cold." Someone had some things to say about that, apparently. Cassian shudders with suppressed rage, and relaxes again.

"... I forget what generation this one is."

Amberdrake leaned to the side and put a hand down on the floor, palm-up. His hair shifted with the motion, little bells ringing gently. He sent out a small tendril of an Empathic projection toward where he'd heard the frog, trying to coax it to his hand. Most animals, this worked on. Hell, most people, too... though he rarely needed such a trick on a person.

To be honest, other than being able to talk, the frog was pretty stupid. Will power of... well of a frog.

It was far too easy to coax the animal to his hand, and the chubby amphibian leaped into his open palm with a pleased ribbit.

"Ye can keep it. I don't want the filthy beast back."

"Because what I need is more talking animals around," Amberdrake said wryly, sitting back up with the frog in hand. "I'm surprised Koumyou Sanzo's cat hasn't started yelling in the common tongue, too."

It honestly just looked like any other frog, kinda slimy, pretty chubby, a little spotty. Apparently the only real thing setting it apart from any other old frog was the fact that it managed to be just as big of a douchebag as it's enchanter.

"I'm not walking back to Everglade with that in the bag."

"Well it..." Drake paused, and peered at the frog with his eyes going unfocused for one brief second, "...he, rather, can't stay here. And I can already tell you what will happen if he goes back to the house with me."

Oh he knew it was male? It never mattered much to Cassian, honestly-

"Good, deserves it for followin' me here, the little prick."

... He will take it back if Drake just drops it in his lap, honestly. For all the smoke and mirrors he was throwing up, it would be almost comically obvious he wasn't going to actually argue.

"I was going to say, Sanzo will probably end up marching him back to your house and dropping him back in your pond," Amberdrake did indeed deposit the frog in Cassian's lap, though he set the amphibian down rather than dropping him. Dropped, he'd probably hop away in an instant. Set down, things were calmer.

The constant, low-level projection of calm that Drake gave off by default probably didn't hurt matters, either.

"I don't think you expected me to give you the silver after that incident," Drake added, curious, "so, what did bring you here?"

"That donkey doesn't know where I live." He hoped. Not for his own sake. Well sort of for his own sake, he would have to reset all those stupid fucking wards if some pissed off priest with a pistol came punching his way into his house.

He didn't react much to the frog, and the frog didn't jump away from him, both calm and comfortable considering both Drake's attitude and Cassian's generally pretty warm lap.

"... Ye... mentioned somethin' about repairin' lungs."

"I did," Amberdrake agreed, pleased. Few people let him work on their chronic health problems that easily. Even if Cassian was only curious and looking for information, that was something. "Are you just curious about it, or wanting to give it a shot?"

"... I need to know what it entails. What kind of information ye might need before hand. I'll tell ye right off the bat, I ain't been seen by a proper doctor in...

... Well for a long time."

"Well," Drake folded his hands together on his bent knee, "it's the same as when I worked on your ribs, I just send the Gift deeper and... well... rebuild your lungs bit by bit. I'd be using the scarred tissue as material where I could and burning it away where I couldn't, so long as it was an area I was already in the process of rebuilding. Pain receptors would be temporarily shut down for that bit, of course."

Because of course, right?

"I admit it's a little more complicated than that, but it's hard to explain it in words." And he wasn't going to be dropping his shields low enough to project any imagery at the non-Empath, not after hearing from Sanzo about that presence. And the hearts.

"I already know you don't age. Your cells aren't splitting the way someone's would while aging. There's no growth going on, and no decay. But you're alive, not undead."

He listened, and it was hard to contain his fascination. It really was all terribly interesting, honestly. How could he not take it all in? Even if it wasn't complete information... Well if he agreed, he'd find out first hand, wouldn't he? It was very tempting.

"Aye... of course." He didn't sound so sure about the pain receptors part but... maybe it was for the best, considering how much damage he could only suppose sat inside his lungs at this point.

"I understand."

As for his current state, he was at a loss for it. "Tis the case, isn't it? Stopped changin' at twenty six." He shrugged helplessly. "I've not got much information on why." Well he had a cursory understanding. The real question wasn't why anymore, it was what.

Or who.

"... What will it cost?"

"There's nothing I need, so... nothing," Amberdrake shrugged, wondering if he was so similar to Sanzo that the idea of free Healing would sting his pride.

Aaand-

"I can't take something like that for free."

DING DING DING.

"I'll trade for it at the very least."

Amberdrake couldn't help but smile a little at that. Yes, it was more than obvious to him why the two cranky priests were beating each other into the mud before things got more serious with the Sutra and the shotgun.

"Now I'm just curious, what would you trade?"

"I create enchantments, as ye now know. Amulets, charms and wards as well. Wards for home protection, self protections, amulets to improve wit or speed or intelligence, charms to keep away the dead or demons, spirits in general usually.

Seems like ye have to end up in Everglade every so often anyway.

Wouldn't do ye a lick of harm to have some magic zombie bug spray on ye would it?"

If it wasn't for the way Cassian clashed with Genjyo, Drake would have considered asking for something for the house, to whatever degree the priest felt settled the bill. But having them around each other...

Maybe with his supervision...

Probably better to just avoid it, much as he wanted something -- anything -- that would give Ukoku at least a little pause. His request on the network hadn't resulted in much.

"Well, you know what you're good at," he finally said, "I'll accept whatever you decide is fair, is that acceptable?"