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 Posted: Mon Feb 15, 2016 8:26 pm
Who: Oliver, Lorenzo, Vesna
Where: Lorenzo's office in Durem
When: The week after Valentines' Day.
Weather: Pleasant, but chilly --- It was about two weeks after Oliver had brought Thatcher, and his filled soul bottle, home from South Africa, and things were going pretty good. But, being one for the pessimistic side of things, Oliver knew that the high wouldn't last. Something was bound to go wrong eventually.
However, he hadn't expected that thing to be Gibbon suddenly passing away.
"Gibbon, you son of a gun!" He exclaimed, clutching the shoe box he'd stored the body of his beloved pet in. "You couldn't have waited until next year, or at least two months from now to kick the bucket? This has to be some sort of karma for letting Qudamah get that bottle, I swear to God."
It was his first instinct of course to start a burial for Gibbon and be done with it, like with the rats he'd had in the past, but something made him pause long enough to check his wallet. He'd taken someone's card from Lab before, someone that worked in the art of Necromancy. Of course, as he stood there dialing the number and waiting for someone to answer, he couldn't remember exactly why he'd grabbed it in the first place. It was more than likely that it had been around the time that his dear friend Arthur Allenson had taken his fall and the idea of bringing the old man back from the dead sounded like a fantastic idea, but with a dead rat now in mind instead of his friend, it wasn't something that he really wanted to think about if he didn't have to.
He was relieved to learn that this particular office took emergency calls, and of course he jumped at the chance to say it was when he really didn't feel all that panicked. Maybe he was still in shock? ... Nah, he was more miffed by this, honestly. Gibbon had always been the kind of rat to pull some sort of stunt when it was absolutely not necessary. Still, he loved all his pets and really didn't want to explain the concept of death to his niece the next time she came over. Obviously, going to a necromancer was the only solution.
"No, Izzie, you stay. Daddy's going in the car by himself." He said, nudging the pup back into the house. "I'll be back soon. Guard the house."
He reviewed the directions a few times after starting the car and sighed. This guy was in Durem? Well, he wasn't someone to give up on a commitment. That, and it was close enough to his nephew's school that he knew where it would be. He couldn't stop now. He backed out of the driveway and drove off.
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Posted: Mon Feb 15, 2016 8:42 pm
Lorenzo Fisch was a bleeding heart, so it was easy to forget that his main stream of income was through pet resurrections. As the son of a prominent undead rights lawyer, and a licensed necromancer, he counseled so many undead on the cheap that there were always more human undead than animals in the hallway he set up as a waiting room, especially near the evening. But like so many beginning necromancers, pets were his specialty, and he tried to treat their situations with all the gravitas and urgency that he would when dealing with resurrecting or otherwise treating a human. After all, pets meant a great deal to people, too.
Thus, he finished checking up on Helga, a living dead border collie, with a friendly pat, looking up at her owner and saying, "Well, I've stitched the tail back on and freshened her up a bit, but if she gets into more trouble, just let me know. It's good that she's so energetic, you know, even if it means the odd accident here and there."
He stretched, checking his schedule. The next appointment was for a rat, Gibbon, owned by an Oliver Kipling. He furrowed his brow slightly, wondering why the name seemed vaguely familiar to him, but the thought was chased from his head when he heard an unscheduled knock at his door.
"Daaaaa-aaaaaaad," a plainitive voice called, and Lorenzo opened the door.
"I'm still not used to that name," he informed the undead frei waiting outside.
"Well, I'm not used to mine either, so we're even," she replied, seizing the opportunity to float into his office and spin his wheelie chair.
"I have an appointment soon," he told her.
"Let me watch, then."
"This isn't a spectator sport, Vesna! How would you feel if I let someone in to watch your checkups with Zeke?"
"Depends on how fun they are, and I'm extremely fun, so I say it's fine."
Lorenzo sighed and checked his watch. He didn't have time for this argument. "If they say anything about you being here, you have to go."
"Does 'Wow, Mister Fisch, your daughter is extremely fun!' count as anything, orrrr..." Vesna shot back teasingly.
Lorenzo only rolled his eyes.
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Posted: Fri Feb 19, 2016 9:34 pm
Despite having a rough estimate of where the office was, Oliver still managed to get himself lost. He eventually found the correct route, but it did nothing to quell his nerves until he pulled up, parked, and found the office. He'd seen buildings like this before but had never actually been inside of one before. Regardless, it still seemed odd to have an office in one of them, much less a Necromancer's office. After rechecking that he had the right address, he wandered in.
"Ah-um, hello?" He called, looking around the hall. "Oh, this is the waiting room... I don't know why I didn't expect there to be one."
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Posted: Sun Feb 21, 2016 9:08 pm
Lorenzo looked up from where he was trying to do damage control, or more aptly, daughter-control, made the snap decision that he was more qualified for necromancy and rushed out of his office into the hallway, closing the door behind him as Vesna scooted the wheelie chair in his direction.
"Mister Kipling!" Lorenzo greeted cheerfully. "How wonderful that you're on time." Behind him, he could hear a faint, soft thudding. He presumed that Vesna was spinning the chair around and hitting the door.
"That's not an undead person!" he reassured Oliver quickly. "Just my daughter. Well, she is undead. Or was undead. Or, well, she looks undead."
He paused.
"At least, as far as I can tell, she does."
This was not a good situation and he was not in control of it. He tried to bring to mind the Licensed Necromancer's Guild protocol and behave more like a Professional Young Necromancer. "Anyway, while she's just, ah... spinning her wheels in my office, let me take a look at Gibbon. Do you mind if she's there while we have our appointment? If you do, I can, ah," telling her to go had proven to be ineffective, "Relocate us to the living room upstairs."
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Posted: Sun Feb 21, 2016 9:23 pm
Oliver paused as Lorenzo appeared and slowly looked to the door, his eyebrows raising at the thudding. However, after listening to Lorenzo's explanation, he couldn't help but laugh.
"Ah, I know how that is! ... I think." He said, shrugging his shoulders. "My niece is the same way. Anything that spins and makes noise keeps her busy for hours. Children are like small animals, really."
He laughed again, albeit awkwardly, before patting the box Gibbon was in.
"Yes, Gibbon. This rat picked the best time to die, I swear." He replied, shaking his head at Lorenzo's question. "And no, I don't mind if she's there, but if you don't mind me asking... How does this work? I've never-uh... Seen something be brought back to life before."
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Posted: Sun Feb 21, 2016 9:48 pm
"Ah, my daughter's actually not a chi-" Lorenzo began, and stopped himself, because it would take an exceedingly long time to explain what Vesna, in fact, was, and after the week he'd had, he wasn't even sure he knew anymore.
"Anyway!" he said. "It's all very straightforward. Come in to my office, and I'll be happy to outline the process." He opened the door and pushed the wheelie chair and his daughter somewhat unceremoniously aside.
"Hi," Vesna said, watching Oliver from the back of the wheelie chair. "I'm not a small animal." Apparently she had also been listening through the door.
"That's Vesna, my cli- daughter," Lorenzo said as he rummaged through his files. "Vesna, this is Oliver Kipling, my client."
"I used to be his client," Vesna informed Oliver brightly. "We had a disagreement in terms and now I'm his daughter. But don't worry, that's not how things usually go. Normally he just resurrects stuff."
Lorenzo cleared his throat. "Well, more or less, that's how it goes. Mister Kipling, how long ago did Gibbon die? If it was within the last 24 hours, we can try a full resurrection-- that just means he won't be undead. However, if he died of old age or if the body is in poor condition, then that might not be possible, and we'd have to go with the other route, a more traditional resurrection where Gibbon would come back as an undead rat."
"Our cat's undead," Vesna offered helpfully. "He's alright."
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Posted: Sun Feb 21, 2016 10:12 pm
Oliver dutifully followed Lorenzo and immediately turned his gaze to Vesna. Oh, she was a Raevan! However, he'd yet to see a Raevan that resembled their guardian as much as she did. In fact, after taking a short moment to look between them again, he'd even go as far as to say they looked like twins! How funny!
"Certainly not, I apologize." He laughed, offering Vesna a smile. "... Wait, client? I'm not sure I unders-"
His attention snapped to Lorenzo as he cleared his throat and he paused to look at Gibbon. Well, it had probably been less than twenty four hours, and Gibbon wasn't a very old rat. Oliver wasn't sure what killed Gibbon, honestly, but he was dead never-the-less. The blond scratched his head.
"I'm sure it's been less than 24 hours. He was alive when I went to bed last night." He replied, his brows furrowing in thought. "But, I can't think of anything that could have killed him. He's not terribly old and his health hasn't been bad... I have had a large amount of family over these last few weeks, so I haven't been very watchful. He could've eaten or been fed something that he wasn't supposed to have for all I know."
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Posted: Mon Feb 22, 2016 9:13 am
Vesna rolled her chair across the room and looked up at Oliver. "It's easy! My soul is an undead lady who wanted to be alive again, and I was Lorenzo's client because she was Lorenzo's client, but then I decided that I didn't want to be his client because he has too many of them. Now I'm his one and only daughter."
"More or less," Lorenzo interjected again. "She's a rusalka that my mother's law firm was contacted by in Russia."
"My soul is a rusalka," Vesna corrected, scooting the chair over to Lorenzo and watching him as he rummaged through his desk.
"Her soul is a rusalka," Lorenzo amended patiently.
"Back to business," he continued, pulling out some forms, and patently ignoring Vesna's soft 'ugh' as he did so. "That's all good news about Gibbon. I think that there's a high probability he can be completely revived based on what you've told me, but it is more expensive and time consuming to do so." Pushing two of the forms over to Oliver, he explained, "This here is the form for a complete revival, which means Gibbon would once again be a living rat." Circling some clauses, he added, "This is the time and effort fee if the process fails, and this is the fee should the process be successful." Holding up the other form, he said, "This is the form for the standard revival, meaning Gibbon would be an undead rat. The fee is lower and the success rate is higher, but Gibbon would have to adapt to being undead, so generally speaking, I at least like to try the full revival in optimistic situations like these where the subject hasn't been dead long."
"Lucky Gibbon," Vesna commented idly.
Ignoring her now that he was embroiled in business, Lorenzo said, "I'll give you a moment to read both of these over. If you have any questions, feel free to ask."
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Posted: Mon Feb 22, 2016 9:47 pm
Her soul was an undead woman who wanted to be alive again? Oliver's brows raised at the thought. But, wasn't one of the things you couldn't catch in a soul bottle a human soul? Was a rusalka different than a human? He wanted to inquire further, but the forms being handed to him derailed his train of though.
"Ah-uh, good! I'm glad!" He replied, as he moved toward the desk. He did his best to listen carefully to everything Lorenzo was saying, but still couldn't keep himself from getting a little overwhelmed. While it was well worth any amount of money to revive Gibbon, Oliver wasn't sure he'd know how to care for an undead rat if the first revival failed. The first thing that popped into his mind was something out a of an indie zombie film and, though he wouldn't say it out loud, it both irked and frightened him. Of course, as Lorenzo said, if Gibbon was in a good state and he hadn't died of old age, he had a strong possibility of being completely revived. There was really no knowing for sure unless they tried.
He took his time reading the forms over and signed everything necessary for the full revival, before nodding to Lorenzo.
"Money isn't any trouble, so I'd be more than willing to go for the complete revival first." He replied, only to purse his lips right after. "However, I'd like to have a better understanding of what the care and keeping of an undead rat would be, should it fail. ... They don't, er... Turn into zombies, per say, like in the movies, do they?"
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Posted: Mon Feb 29, 2016 11:57 am
Lorenzo winced slightly, and Vesna furrowed her brow. "What's a zombie?" she asked.
"A zombie is-- Those movies are... That term is considered to be slightly offensive by the members of the undead community," Lorenzo explained, smiling apologetically. "Of course, I wouldn't expect someone new to necromancy to know that. Most people think of zombie movies when they hear 'necromancy', but no, that's generally not how necromancy goes these days unless something has gone terribly wrong."
He pulled out some friendly, bright pamphlets, the topmost of which was titled "CARING FOR YOUR UNDEAD PET". "These should be helpful to have on hand if the first resurrection fails. Essentially, though, your rat will stick to its normal patterns of behavior. Undead animals are creatures of habit. My cat, for instance, doesn't breathe, but still yawns and purrs. Gibbon won't need food anymore, since he would be fueled by magic, but he would need regular monthly checkups from a necromancer to refresh and update the spell keeping him alive. If you do want to give him treats, he can still enjoy eating normal food, it just won't do anything practical for him. His body will also be less durable and it won't fix its own cuts and scrapes anymore, so it'll be important to keep him away from sharp snags and edges in his cage. If something does happen and a limb falls off, you should get somebody to stitch it up with surgical stitching and disinfect it with rubbing alcohol. Some people preserve or enbalm their undead pets' bodies, and it makes them much hardier, but their limbs also become a little less flexible, and the smell is slightly unpleasant to some. The magic keeping them alive should also slow the decay process anyway, so they'll decay at roughly the rate their bodies would age were they alive."
"I'm getting better at stitching Buddy's tail back on," Vesna informed Oliver proudly. "And we might be getting surgical thread in cuter colors, too."
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Posted: Wed Mar 02, 2016 9:41 pm
"That term is considered to be slightly offensive by the members of the undead community,"
It was at this point that Oliver's breath caught in his throat and his face heated. He had to congratulate himself on how well he was handling this encounter, really. He'd arrived without any idea as to what he was doing, probably sounded like a complete idiot, and had now insulted the entire undead community. This visit was going about as splendid as a car tire melting in a pit of red hot molasses.
"Oh, I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to offend!" He gasped, lowering his head until Lorenzo handed him a selection of pamphlets. He took them quickly, grateful for the distraction, and looked them over while Lorenzo spoke. Everything he was hearing still made him nervous, but he'd come this far today to get this done, he wasn't about to say no now. Plus, after saying something offensive, he didn't feel it would be in good conscience to back out at all. He nodded along as best he could and turned to Vesna with a laugh.
"I think Gibbon would prefer thread that matches his fur, but having cuter colors is a always good idea." He said, before turning back to Lorenzo. "I believe I understand everything now, and I would be more than willing to commit to regular exams and keeping him out of trouble. Would I be coming back to see you for these check ups?"
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Posted: Thu Mar 03, 2016 7:07 pm
"Perfectly fine!" Lorenzo reassured him, though he wished that Oliver hadn't said it in front of Vesna. He supposed she would have heard the term eventually, but as long as she was hanging around his living clients, it was bound to have happened sooner rather than later. "Like I said, there's no way you could have known. Anyway, you know now! And you didn't mean it offensively."
"Excellent," said Lorenzo, handing Oliver the proper paperwork. "We'll start with the full resurrection, and if that doesn't work, then we can try the standard resurrection. If we end up having to resort to that, you can come back to see me, or I can recommend you to another necromancer if my office is inconvenient for you. Did you drive far to get here?" He paused as he procured a pen for Oliver, and added, "Come to think of it, what made you think of calling my office if you aren't familiar with necromancy? I'm always curious as to how new clients end up hearing of me."
"We can get you plenty of colors!" Vesna assured. "Can I see Gibbon?" She drummed her fingers on the back of the chair impatiently as Lorenzo went through the forms and documents. She wanted to see magic, but Lorenzo hadn't done any in front of her since the magic trick he had done when he picked her up at the Lab.
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Posted: Thu Mar 03, 2016 8:19 pm
Oliver was relieved that they'd changed subject and took the pen and paperwork readily. Though he still didn't fully understand everything, he was sure that he'd find out soon enough, and chatted back as he worked on filling everything out.
"Ah, uh, not too far? I live in Barton." He replied, pausing to squint at one of the boxes on the paper. "My nephew goes to boarding school here, though, so it's not like I'm unfamiliar. It wouldn't be any trouble for me to come out here."
He paused again at Lorenzo's next question and found himself digging for a good answer. Well, he'd gotten the business card during one of his visits to Lab and only remembered it now that his rat died? The exact reason why he thought necromancy was a better idea than just burying Gibbon and forgetting about it was another story, though.
"Well, I found your business card at Lab 305, along with a few from other people. I figured it couldn't hurt to make connections early, you know?" He explained, smiling. "As for, well, why I called... My sister hasn't explained the concept of death to my niece yet and I... Didn't want to be the one to do that."
He let out a laugh and rubbed at the back of his head. Now that he'd heard it spoken out loud, it was a rather silly reason, wasn't it? He winced at himself.
"Hm? Oh, sure." He said, nodding to Vesna as she spoke. He placed the pen down briefly and offered her the box he'd put Gibbon in. "I'd say be careful, but... It's not like he's going anywhere for a while."
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Posted: Wed Mar 16, 2016 4:02 pm
"Actually, I think that I can get started now," Lorenzo said, as Vesna half lifted the lid to the box that Gibbon had been laid to rest in. "Since a rat is a fairly small animal, it'll just take about half an hour even for a full resurrection, and my schedule isn't terribly busy today. But I'll have to ask you to leave the room while I work."
"You can wait in the hallway," Vesna offered.
"And you can wait with him, Vesna."
"But I wanted to see!"
"For a full resurrection, I need to be concentrating completely. It's very difficult to perform and I can't risk any distractions." Vesna looked mutinous, so he added, "Plus, you can help me by keeping Mister Kipling company. Otherwise all he'll have to occupy himself are the educational pamphlets out there."
This was not selling the idea to Vesna. Lorenzo added, "If he picked up my business card at Lab 305, you can ask him if he has a raevan." Lorenzo was fairly curious about that himself, but he supposed he could ask about it after the resurrection was complete. He didn't want to keep Mister Kipling too long with idle chatter when he was worried about his rat.
Vesna looked back at Mister Kipling and over at Lorenzo, holding Gibbon's box, but relented and floated into the hallway. "Come on, Mister Kipling," she said, "I can save you from having to read about the top twenty misconceptions about practicing necromancers."
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Posted: Thu Mar 17, 2016 2:30 pm
Oliver watched Vesna and Lorenzo speak and had to keep himself from protesting as well. He was curious about what resurrection looked like and how it was performed, but he supposed he'd have to look it up for himself. He understood not wanting to be distracted. It was probably a very delicate procedure, after all.
"Alright, I have my full faith in you." He said, nodding to Lorenzo. His words were a little shaky, but earnest, and he dutifully followed Vesna to the hallway. It was there that he was thankful for the opportunity to collect himself again and allowed himself to breathe. Honestly, he couldn't remember the last time he'd been that nervous. Hopefully it wouldn't leave a lasting impression.
"Wait, there's a book about that?" He asked, looking to Vesna curiously, only to quickly regret the question. "Ah, never-mind, I don't need to read anything right now."
He pursed his lips and turned to look about the hallway, before looking to Vesna again.
"Sooo, what do you usually do while you wait for him to finish working?" He added, hoping to spark a conversation. "Any games? Hobbies?"kotaline (I'm sorry that he's so awkward ffff)
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