taxonomites | Arrival Post

Briar's wary gaze slid around the unfamiliar room, and he prepared a tiny shoot of power to untie the hemp cords that held knives in place under his shirt, an impractical sheath for anyone but a plant mage. No windows, no visible entrance or exit. Metal walls, metal device above his head, metal pedestal with a partly metal device on it. And as he focused on his knives, Briar noticed something unfamiliar on his wrist just below the hilt of the knife. He rubbed at the metal bracelet that bisected a bright blue orchid tattoo. It didn't budge.

"Great, everything's metal," Briar grumbled, magically reaching out to the shakkan, his only company in the bare and polished room. The tree's calm and patience steadied him through their connection. "Y'know," he called out to no one in particular, "I think maybe you were aiming for my sister. I can't do anything with all this metal." That's of course if they were aiming for someone to work with metal. They could just as easily have been looking for someone helpless against it. That last part was what had Briar fighting down a growing urge to panic.

Confusion only added to that urge. Briar couldn't think of anyone who'd capture a person only to give him an anchor and boost for his power. He went down the few steps, fingers running over the walls in search of a catch for a hidden door. Seams would be awfully hard to hide in a smooth metal surface, but illusions and metal mages were both things that could just maybe manage it.

Several minutes of searching later and no closer to figuring out where he was or how to escape, Briar sighed. He tapped into his bond with the shakkan again to give his power the greatest possible reach, speaking through his magic, Daj'? I don't know if you can hear me, but I could really use a hand right now. If anyone could get him out of a metal room, it'd be Daja. When no answer came, Briar strained for a sense of any of the three girls. None were there. He had to be cut off magically if he couldn't even feel them; they'd certainly been in range before, even if all four had closed doors on their minds.

"I'll just sit here then," he remarked dryly, "And wait for someone to tell me exactly what you've snatched me for." While he waited, Briar strained his magical senses for hints of plant life outside the room. He concluded that his suspicions about a magically shielded room were tentatively confirmed, as he could reach no local greenery either, not so much as a blade of grass. The mage stopped trying, saving his energy for whenever his captors did make an appearance.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Of all the many ways Briar could be killed, he considered poison one of the least likely. If it were plant-based or entailed the use of magic, he would have to be paying little to no attention for it to make it past him, and most people tried plant-based first. It was far more probable he'd get killed by some other means before anyone managed to poison him. If saying he could potentially be poisoned helped talk the other man into eating, Briar would do it.

Of course it didn't work, and Briar couldn't say he was really surprised. Stubbornness was hardly a foreign concept. It had certainly been present in Briar's life often enough. But he hoped Party would keep it in mind later. He let the subject go for the time being.

"The one that zaps people isn't named Tris, by any chance, is she?" he asked. It wasn't likely, not when he couldn't sense her, but if Coppercurls was here, Briar wanted to know. "And I've never heard of vampires."

Party's long tirade contained a lot of completely unintelligible words and phrases, but Briar was less distracted by them than many people would have been. He focused on the parts that did make sense, grasping the gist of things. Their captors could rearrange the city and the minds of their captives, and would do so without a second thought. Briar touched his shakkan for reassurance, the miniature pine tree's century and a half of patience and calm steadying his nerves. It wasn't a good idea to rely on the tree for something like this too often, and Briar never did. Today, though, was a strange enough day that he wouldn't fault himself for it. "I doubt I'll be here too long before I'm ready to help you do it," he told Party grimly.

Party nearly laughs at the name, but who is he to do that?

"Nah. Fiesty Brunette? A bit older than me? Really, really pretty eyes..." Yup, that's the face of one rebellious redhead crushing hard on something he'll probably never get. "Yeah..." He clears his throat though, snapping out of it.

"Vampires are like Dracs, but for real." And he pauses because he forgets no one knows what he's talking about. "Just, uh, I'd do my best to remain cheerfully cautious 'round those Exxies."

There's a bit of a chuckle, though. It's dead laughter, because Party hasn't fully laughed in years and certainly not with this. "Tell you what." He explains the basics of using the tablet, along with paranoid advice to constantly lock important things, and then gives him the thumbs up.

"You call me or the Kobra Kid if you want. We'll be at Bronte Beach, or one of the forests, which uh.. I'm guessin' you're gonna go? Since you're makin' out with that bush..."

Arrival Post

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