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 Posted: Mon Jan 18, 2016 10:07 pm
Lovely, Lovely Horse
WHO: Lorenzo (kotaline), Duncan, and Aina (Rookeries)
WHEN: Mid January, 2016
WHERE: At Mr. Fisch’s office.
WEATHER: A thin layer of snow outside. Fairly chilly.
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Posted: Mon Jan 18, 2016 10:07 pm
Duncan was, to be blunt, never very fond of necromancy. When he was younger, to put it even more bluntly, he admonished the craft entirely - he was a more conservative scholar amongst his more magically inclined peers. Many of them explained it away with his hoity-toity English upbringing, or perhaps his severe American heritage, and Duncan never fought the matter; after all, it was easy enough to avoid the craft entirely, if one were not in need of its services directly.
But now that he did, he found himself walking along a sidewalk in downtown Durem with a perpetual look of uncertainty. Not only was he making his way to the private office of a licensed necromancer, but he was also visiting with Aina - his little one, who had pestered him about the meeting enough to convince him that, yes, bringing her along was a good idea. Lorenzo Fisch, after all, was a Raevan guardian to be - he knew that much from a cursory visit to Lab 305 and an update to his contacts list.
“Duncan?” Aina piped up - Duncan recoiled from his thoughts to smile down at Aina. The pomegranate smiled back, and Duncan tried to see past the small bell jar Aina was holding between her gloved hands. In it was a dead butterfly, floating unceremoniously as a result of her magic.
Aina pointed up at the store sign - Lorenzo Fisch, M.N.A. Necromantic Services and Post-Life Care. “Is this where Mr. Fisch is?”
“Ah - yes, I believe so… Thank you, Aina.” With a broad smile, Duncan pushed open the door and took off his cap as they entered through the threshold of one Mr. Fisch. Aina floated curiously ahead of him, clutching onto her bell jar, and sat next to the only other client in the waiting room - someone particularly Undead. With an uneasy smile, Duncan offered them a small nod and took his seat.
”Can Mr. Fisch really bring Mr. E back?” she asked, glancing up at Duncan. Duncan rested his briefcase and hat on his lap, giving pause.
”Let’s hope for Maree that he can,” he replied.
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Posted: Mon Jan 18, 2016 10:13 pm
Lorenzo Fisch was exhausted.
It had been a long New Year’s, and even with a week of catch-up under his belt, he was still swamped with check-ins and appointments. On top of that, he was jetlagged, to the point where he felt more undead than his clients did. At least he had managed to shave some time off today when his ten o’clock decided against their consultation after seeing an actual undead person in the lobby, but he didn’t think that Mrs. Price would get over having somebody burst into tears at the sight of her easily, no matter how much he comforted her about how she actually looked almost completely alive, and even if she didn’t, she didn’t owe that to anybody anyway. He always dreaded taking appointments from living clients because of things like this, and normally he tried to schedule his appointments with the living and undead separately, but what with the backlog of work he had to do after dealing with the rusalka, it had just been impossible lately.
He sighed and gathered his files for the next appointment. First, he had to give Mister Reyes his salve to deal with skin rot, and then he had a consultation about a dead horse. He rubbed his eyes, slapped his cheeks, and let out one small, private yawn, then got up, poking his head out cheerfully into the hallway.
He dealt with Mister Reyes fairly quickly, explaining what the salve did and when to apply it, and how he shouldn’t worry if for the first few hours the affected area was suddenly very hairy. Then he turned to the only other people in the reception area and greeted, “Mister Clarke! So wonderful of you to make it today, it’s a pleasure to meet you.”
He paused and took in the girl next to Duncan, somewhat flabbergasted to see a Raevan in his office, but greeted her as well. “And it’s nice to meet you too! I’m Lorenzo.”
Opening the door to his office, he asked, “Would you like to come in with us, or would you like me to find you some activity books? I think I have some pamphlets for children on the back wall there with the other ones.” He gestured to the other side of the hallway, where a reading rack full of pamphlets with titles such as “YOU DON’T HAVE TO BE FANCY TO STUDY NECROMANCY” in various exciting fonts.
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Posted: Mon Jan 18, 2016 10:14 pm
Aina was more occupied with studying her dead butterfly friend as Mister Reyes was ushered into the office by Mister Fisch, hands turning the bell jar every which-way as the insect floated idly, as if it were still flying. Duncan, meanwhile, opened the latch of his briefcase for a novella he’d been reading, somewhat hoping their timeliness wouldn’t beget their appointment any earlier. These chairs were surprisingly plush, after all, and the client ahead of them seemed awfully in need of Mr. Fisch’s services; what harm did one more hour of waiting do for anyone, after all?
When Duncan’s name was called in a matter of minutes, his smile thinned and he promptly deposited his book back into the briefcase. It was easy to compose himself when he recognized that he was here for a dear friend, and that Mr. Fisch was meritable as both a professional and as a suitable guardian. ”Mister Fisch!” his tone was genial enough, and he rose from his seat, straightening out the creases of his jacket. “A pleasure.”
“Hi Mister Fisch,” Aina waved, tucking her specimen jar under one arm - she hopped off of her seat, rearing to go. When Lorenzo pointed to the pamphlets across the hallway, Aina frowned; “Mm-mm,” she shook her head, “I wanna know about Mr. E! And this.”
When she held out her bell jar to Lorenzo, Duncan laughed. “This is Aina. She’s willing to pay her weight in gold if you can tell her a thing or two about insect revivals.” Once the briefcase was properly sealed, he stepped toward the office, extending a hand to Lorenzo; “I was also curious about your guardianship with Lab, but should we save those discussions for another time?”
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Posted: Mon Jan 18, 2016 10:23 pm
Lorenzo squinted. “You want to know about… Mystery…? Well, insect revivals are no mystery to a licensed necromancer, and I’ll be happy to tell you all about them after I meet with Mister Clarke.” Leading the pair of them into his office, he pulled a chair from the side of the room for Aina to sit on, or, he supposed, hover over.
“Ah yes,” he replied to Duncan. “I’ve just turned in by bottle to the Lab recently, actually. It’s been so busy here because I was in Russia over New Year’s to perform a soul capture, although personally, I think ‘capture’ is a bit of a demeaning word for the soul--” he caught himself and cleared his throat as he began to ramble. “Anyway, the long and short of it is, I have Russian candy here if you or Aina would like some, and I have a lot of appointments to catch up on, so perhaps it would be best for us to meet and discuss non-necromantic matters at another time. Although it is a pleasure to meet you, even on a professional basis.” He smiled, and opened the notes he had prepared for Duncan.
“To be sure of whether my services would be right for your horse, I have a few questions that I’d like you answer before we begin, Mister Clarke. One, what work would you require it for? As you may or may not know, using undead horses in racing is actually illegal, since they cannot tire or lose focus. Secondly, how large is the horse? Thirdly, how recently did it die? And fourthly, what condition is the body in?” He steepled his fingers. “If the death was accidental, occurred within the last twenty-four hours, and the corpse is completely preserved, we may be able to actually undo the death, meaning that the horse restored to you would, in fact, be a living horse. But that would be a complex rush order, so my fee would be steep. If the horse’s corpse is too deteriorated, however, I cannot promise that it will be functional once I resurrect it. If the horse has been dead too long, I may not be able to retrieve its soul, but I may be able to turn it into a simulacrum powered by necromantic energy. I do not recommend this alternative unless you really cannot afford a new horse.” He took out a file with some diagrams and charts showing the effects of the different options he had outlined and gave Duncan a chance to look them over.
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Posted: Mon Jan 18, 2016 10:27 pm
Lorenzo’s reply confused Aina into remaining quiet for a moment, staring with furrowed brows and a pout between Duncan and the necromancer. She hugged Duncan’s arms and nudged him; ”Mr. E ain’t an insect,” she whispered, ”Is he really a magician, Duncan?”
Duncan lent Aina a polite smile before ushering her on to walk with him into Lorenzo’s office - the mention of Russia caught his attention as he sat in his offered seat. He placed his briefcase back on his lap and unlatched it to pull out papers of his own. ”Thank you for the offer, Mr. Fisch - but yes, it’s something I would appreciate speaking with you about on our own time - if you’d have us as company. Some Russian candies for a pot of tea at the shop nearby, perhaps? If you ever find yourself with some free time.”
”Can I have some Russian candy, too?” Aina asked, poking her head over the edge of the table from her seat. ”Would Miss Claire’s leshy baby like these?”
”You can look, but no eating - it would make you sick. And we’ll have to ask Miss Claire the next time we see her.” He read through his own documents while he nodded along to Lorenzo’s inquiries, clicking on his pen as he circled along to relevant information - after scrawling a few notes at the footer, Duncan was quick to reply. ”I was recommended to this office by an Iliana - if the name is familiar. I can understand why, you’re very thorough.” He laid his documents on the table for Lorenzo to read.
”Mr. E is a thoroughbred, you can see his weight and birth year here - he is a prize horse, yes, but his resurrection isn’t for the sake of the races; he’s simply treasured by his family, and his owner wasn’t prepared to see him go. He died two days ago - Mrs. Hartline has been keeping his body intact via cryopreservation an hour or so after his death. I understand that you mentioned a 24-hour frame for a full resurrection, but Mrs. Hartline is vying for it - would it still be possible?”
”What’s a resurrection?” Aina asked; she knew it was polite to stay quiet during serious conversation, but the curiosity was nagging at her. ”An’ a simmlacrumb? Maree said she wants a zombie horse.”
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Posted: Mon Jan 18, 2016 10:34 pm
Lorenzo looked surprised. “Ah, yes! My apologies, Miss Aina. I’ll have to remember that in future. I know plenty about the undead, but I’m still getting used to Raevans.” He looked around for something besides candy to offer her, to no avail. He sighed and wrote out an IOU on a post it note, handing it to her carefully. “There we go! When you can eat, I will gladly get you some more.” He startled at the mention of a Leshy and was about to pursue the topic, but shook his head and got back to the business at hand. “I would be glad to trade treats for tea, Mister Clarke. I should be free for private engagements again in a week or so.” If he pulled a few more all nighters, it would Probably Be Fine, after all.
“Ah, yes, a necromancer’s trade tends to rely on word of mouth,” Lorenzo said wryly. “Advertising gets tricky.” He picked up the documents and scanned them while Duncan spoke, making his own marks on them with his pen, which was rather unnecessarily made to look like a crow quill.
“If he was a race horse, then I’m afraid that I must insist upon including a clause about racing in the contract for the sake of formality, but otherwise it shouldn’t be impossible. The body being well preserved isn’t as much of an issue as the state of the soul- it can be difficult to attach it to the body in the same way after it’s been out of its vessel for longer than a day. Or anyway, that’s the short explanation. Since the horse seems to have a strong connection to the family though, it might be possible.” He rolled up his sleeves and drew two forms out of his file folder, passing them to Duncan. “This is the contract I typically use for horses- the racing clause is here,” he circled a paragraph, “And the rest just generally outlines the expectations of both parties. Please read it over and let me know if there’s anything you’d like to be tailored to the situation.” He pushed forward the other contract as well. “And this form is for a live resurrection. For a live resurrection after forty eight hours, there’s a high chance of failure, so there’s a clause in here which specifies that in case of failure, I will still be paid a fee for my time, though considerably lower than the fee for a successful resurrection, of course.”
He turned to Aina, smiling, and opened his mouth to answer her questions, but something gave him pause. “...Maree?” he asked carefully. “Maree Hartline?”
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Posted: Mon Jan 18, 2016 10:36 pm
Aina propelled herself with her wings slightly forward so as to reach for the post-it note (and a few candies to stare at) from Lorenzo, one arm still occupied by the bell jar. ”It’s okay,” she smiled, staring at the post-it note - she glanced up at Lorenzo again. ”Thank you, Mr. Fisch!” She wasn’t sure what an IOU meant, exactly, but that was a question for another time - the fact that she couldn’t eat the Russian candies reminded her that she could still feed off it, just not in a traditional sense,, and she was hankering for a snack. With a contented hum, her rune pulsed a bright blue as the post-it note and candies began suspending in air.
Aina’s little display caused a slight distraction for Duncan as he glanced over at the girl, but with a small start he returned to business. ”Ah - yes, a clause; certainly. I see… I apologize for the inconvenience,” as he was mentally preparing an inquiry of the racehorse clause, Lorenzo had already procured a document; pleased, he adjusted his glasses and leaned forward to read through it. ”You’re quite the warlock, Mr. Fisch,” Duncan commented; as the papers were pushed forward, he happily took them into his hands, straightening in his seat as he read. He gave a small nod in understanding at the addendum.
Aina leaned to the side to look through the documents, but to her dismay, there was a large wall of text - the font was too small and the letters too dense for her read through very well at all, and with a frown, she sat back in her seat. Lorenzo’s post-it note and candies were now suspended in air around her, and she tipped the bell jar idly side-by-side with the full expectation that she had to amuse herself; at the necromancer’s question, she nodded eagerly. ”Mhm! Miss Maree! Her mama Ila asked Duncan to go to Durem ‘cause she didn’t want to herself.”
Duncan paused in his reading to glance sidelong at Aina, bemused; she was always one to overshare when it came to the affairs of others, it seemed, and her typical shyness was long begotten by her curiosity over Lorenzo’s profession and her dead bug. ”Ah, yes, I’d forgotten that Iliana goes by Ila most days. I believe her office is right near here, but her work’s kept her as busy as always,” he returned to reading his papers, ”She thinks very highly of you, Mr. Fisch.”
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Posted: Mon Jan 18, 2016 10:45 pm
“Maree Hartline,” Lorenzo murmured quietly, looking at his hands. He clenched them for half a second, and then looked up at Duncan again with his most Professional Smile. “Yes, my mother and Iliana Hartline are well acquainted with each other. We’re both well established magical families in the area. Maree and I used to be playmates as children. Ha! Those were the days. Or, at least, they were days.” He cleared his throat and plowed onwards. “I’m certainly glad to hear that Iliana thinks well of me. I always looked up to her when I was young.”
“Anyway if the Hartlines have not given you permission to sign these documents on their behalf, they must be delivered to them. The sooner they are signed, the more likely the procedure will be successful, but I must be informed immediately so I can begin the work. I also must be where the corpse of the horse is- If I go to where it lived and died, the process will go more easily, as opposed to the corpse being taken to my office.” His office was also quite small. Both literally and metaphorically, there wasn’t room to swing a horse.
He turned to Aina and asked “Now, let’s see about this insect friend of yours, shall we? What seems to be the problem?”
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Posted: Mon Jan 18, 2016 10:48 pm
Once his reading was complete, Duncan set the papers on top of his briefcase and smiled fondly at Lorenzo, blissfully unaware that he was putting on a facade. ”Ah, you knew Maree as a child, then? I heard she was quite a handful back then,” he laughed, ”She’d be touched to hear that, I’m sure.”
At the reminder, Duncan raised his brows and returned to sifting through his briefcase - he slipped a paper to Lorenzo. It was a handwritten letter by Iliana, as she was the sort to avoid a computer as much as she could in this day and age, and at the end was her and Maree’s signature - one in beautiful, illegible cursive, and the other in simple scrawl abbreviated “M.H.” ”I hope this is permissible. The address of where Mr. E is should be in the previous document - I apologize, it’s quite a drive from here. Maree and her cousin Stephen will be there to greet you,” he paused, chuckling, ”I’m sure Maree would appreciate a visit from a childhood friend.”
The Frei straightened in her seat a bit when Lorenzo addressed her; with a diligent nod, she placed the bell jar roughly onto the table, and the floating butterfly inside jostled a bit. ”I found ‘im all dead in my room but he was really pretty, so I kept him! Can you make him fly again?”
Duncan gathered the post-it note and candies from the air to keep in his palm before they reached a height past arm’s length. ”Could you tell Mr. Fisch when you found the butterfly, Aina?”
”Um…” she glanced at the floor, thinking - ”On Monday!”
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Posted: Mon Jan 18, 2016 10:58 pm
Lorenzo laughed. “Yes, Maree was just… Just full of energy,” he decided. “I could never keep up.”
He looked at the paper that Duncan handed him and nodded, then flipped the paper to look at the address. “It’s no matter to me,” he told Duncan amiably. “My travel expenses are included in the fee. Oh! And Maree will be there! Oh good!” He let out another strangled laugh and stopped himself before he let his tendencies get the better of him and slipped into a maleficent chuckle. It was a bad habit of many necromancers, especially in times of Extreme Stress.
Clearing his throat again, he focused his attention on Aina’s problem and tried to ignore the impending threat of having to spend time with his childhood friend. “Well, this is a pretty butterfly,” Lorenzo commented, peering at it through the glass. “I’m afraid I can’t bring him back as a living butterfly, but I can certainly resurrect him as an undead butterfly. But I have to ask you, Aina, are you willing to take good care of him if I do?” He leaned in and said, “He might not stay as pretty, and he’ll need a friend to help him adjust to being undead. It’s not easy for anybody, even butterflies. Oh! And this question is the most important before I do anything. Do you think the butterfly would want to come back as someone undead? If it wouldn’t want to come back, there’s nothing my magic can do.”
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Posted: Mon Jan 18, 2016 11:12 pm
For the most part, Duncan couldn’t see past Lorenzo’s Professionalism (albeit it strangled) through to his dismay, but the necromancer’s choice in wording gave him pause. He laughed along with the man, anyway; he knew Maree to be nothing but pleasant - sometimes curt and often morbid, but always pleasant. ”Yes, I’m sure she’d love to see you - now, these papers,” he offered in reply. He returned to the documents, giving each clause another quick read before signing them.
”Mhm, he’s really pretty… we looked it up together an’ one of Duncan’s friends told me it was a peacock butterfly,” Aina explained - she dug through her coat to find an illustrated picture of said species, clearly cut out from a book. She handed it to him, then hugged her arms over the table as she listened, chin resting on top of her hands while her jaw tightened in thought. She glanced down at the documents that remained on the table, thinking.
”Um…” Aina nodded toward Lorenzo; she uncrossed her arms to tap her hands to explore and pick up things on the table for a few seconds at a time, including some of his documents and more of the candies. She chose to speak toward the objects and not him, as she was growing a bit nervous. ”I can take care of him… it’s okay if he doesn’t look as pretty.” Aina grabbed her bell jar off of the table and leaned away from the table, sitting upright in her seat as she admired the little butterfly. ”And I think he died ‘cause it’s real cold an’ he forgot he had to stay warm… so… if I keep him warm I think he’d still wanna be alive. He’ll be okay with me...”
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Posted: Mon Jan 18, 2016 11:19 pm
Lorenzo nodded. Animals were generally easier to resurrect than humans, so beginning necromancers often had pet resurrection services front and center in their business- an animal’s instinct, first and foremost, was to live. He had never resurrected an insect before, but he assumed that the general principle was the same. “It seems like you’ve thought very hard about his wishes,” he praised Aina, “So I’m sure that he’ll be very happy to find out that he has such a good friend.”
For something as small as a butterfly, the resurrection was very simple. He reached into his desk drawer and took out some chalk, drawing a circle with symbols right on the desk. “Could you put him right there, please?” he asked Aina, pointing to the middle of the circle. “And even for just a butterfly, a necromancer needs a contract. He pulled out his smallest contract for cases like this, with a child who just simply wanted a pet to come back. It was designed not to overwhelm them. The paper was colorful and friendly, and the font was, unfortunately, Comic Sans.
“All that says,” Lorenzo told her, “Is what I’ve just asked you. It says that you’ve thought hard about it and decided that he would want to come back, and that you’ll look after him if I revive him.” He handed her some Amusing pens to choose from to sign, and chose a green one with a feathery topper to sign his half. “It means that I’m not just bringing back the butterfly for somebody who I don’t think will cherish him properly. Oh, and your parent or guardian will also have to sign it.” He offered his feathery pen to Duncan.
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Posted: Mon Jan 18, 2016 11:19 pm
Aina hugged her jar close and smiled timidly at Lorenzo - a slight nod and some relief later and she offered the necromancer a more relieved smile. ”I’ll take really good care of him! I promise…” She scooted closer to the desk to place the bell jar squarely at the middle of the chalk circle, adjusting it some so it was just so - then, slowly, she moved her hands away and stared at Lorenzo’s contract.
Despite it being colorful and written out in Comic Sans, Aina took the whole business very seriously - she took the contract into her hands and read it with slightly furrowed brows and a Frown, just to make sure Mr. Fisch knew was very serious about the matter. Like Duncan, she nodded along as she explained, then looked up to find a good pen to write her name with - she chose a nice glittery pink gel pen. It was all in good timing - Duncan had just finished signing his own documents on the Hartline family’s part, and he stared up at Lorenzo and Aina’s ordeal curiously.
”It sounds like you two have come to an agreement,” he smiled at Lorenzo, receiving his green pen; Aina remained quiet, carefully writing her name out. Her handwriting was still rough, but it had plenty of curly-q’s with a heart at the top of her lone “I” - very serious indeed. The Frei handed the paper to Duncan urgently, and he took them to give the document a cursory read-over. He signed it and gave Lorenzo back both contracts.
Aina stared down at her seat, mulling over some things, then glanced back up at Lorenzo. ”Mr. Fisch, is it bad if mister butterfly doesn’t have a name yet?”
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Posted: Mon Jan 18, 2016 11:26 pm
Lorenzo stroked his chin. Normally necromantic magic was heavily based around names. Pets had names they responded to, which made them much easier to resurrect than a wild animal, but it wasn’t impossible to resurrect a wild animal with a more general name either. “Even if we named him now,” Lorenzo decided, “He wouldn’t know he had a name, so it wouldn’t do anything just yet. I can still resurrect him with his proper scientific name, though.” He opened his phone and googled ‘peacock butterfly scientific name’ and showed it to Aina. “So for this resurrection, we’ll be referring to the butterfly as Aglais Io. The incantation will be in Latin, so using a Latin name helps.”
He stretched his hand over the circle, and began to speak an incantation. While normally Lorenzo was a man who stammered through life, at this, at least, he was completely confident. His posture straightened, and his voice became louder, steadier, and less gentle. The actual act of necromancy was about willing something to happen which nature resisted, so the tone of command was essential in bringing anything back from the dead. As he spoke, the room darkened slightly and the lights flickered. The circle began to glow, and small lights began to circle around Lorenzo, probably the various lost souls of mice and such dispatched by Buddy and looking for an empty vessel to inhabit. They couldn’t get through the circle to the butterfly’s body, but they made the whole process look regrettably spooky. To his great consternation, Lorenzo still hadn’t found a way to make the actual act of necromancy look friendly and professional.
The butterfly not having a name and being dead so long drained Lorenzo much more than he anticipated. It fluttered to life, and he cut off from chanting, a little pale and shaky as the room returned to normal. He smiled a Professional Smile at Aina so as not to worry her, and very gingerly asked, “Would you like to lift the bell jar now?”
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