Helping a Harry Dresden ((tag thepizzalord))

[slayers_desire]

Things are quiet in Los Angeles today. When April arrives with a new friend from the Nexus, Wes jumps slightly from his chair, where he was seating.

"April?"

"Hey Wes. We need to use the library."

Wes bites his lip, thinking for a moment. "If you are certain..." He stands, leading them back to an iron door.

Comments

[thepizzalord]

Harry perks up a bit more when he sees what Wes looks like. He turns to April. "You didn't tell me you were from the Buffyverse!" He's met a Buffy before, and they got along pretty well.

[slayers_desire]

"I don't usually think about saying that." April laughs. "But Wes still has much of his Watcher library."

Wes is working on the dials and wards on the iron door.

"And my father, Spike, might be around too."

[thepizzalord]

"...Spike is your dad?" Harry's used to dealing with his world's vampires, so while he knows that Buffyverse vampires aren't the same, there's still that trained response of caution.

[slayers_desire]

"I was born a vampire. So I have a soul." April explains.

[thepizzalord]

"Better than nothin', I guess." She's been nothing but friendly, and he doesn't get the same feel from her that he's gotten from Red and Black Court vampires. And White Court, although not as much with some of them either. One, anyway.

[slayers_desire]

"When I met the other you... I helped him with a nest of Black Court vampires." April can sense his unease with her.

Wes opens the door, turning on the light to illuminate the library. It is several bookshelves, with a lot of dust.

[thepizzalord]

"Nasty business. Sorry you had to see that." Even though it was another him, he feels the need to apologize. And now that he's had time to adjust to the idea, he's not as cautious around her.

[slayers_desire]

"I was glad that I was able to help. And again..." April leads him into the library.

[thepizzalord]

Harry looks around the library appreciatively. "Now this is more like it. The Normandy's databanks are fulla stuff but kinda thin on magic." Not as good as having Bob would be, but it's the next best thing.

[slayers_desire]

"There is a shelf for protection spells, we can start there."

[thepizzalord]

Harry puts his staff against his back, and his armor's specially-modified weapon locks keep it there so both his hands are free to explore the library's goods. It's been a while since he's been in a real library with actual books, and it's almost a relief to be in familiar surroundings. Being around technology all the time still makes him nervous.

"Most enchantments I know for this kinda thing focus on keeping stuff out. I might need to cross over between protection and containment, but protection's a good place to start."

[slayers_desire]

April tunes into her voices, letting them guide her through the books instead of actually reading the titles.

"Protection... containtment..." She whispers to herself.

[thepizzalord]

Harry watches her curiously. She doesn't look like she's even really looking at the books, and if she wasn't using actual words (particularly ones she's used before in casual dialogue), he might think she's casting a spell of his world's variety.

[slayers_desire]

Her voices guide her to a couple of books, that she collects and brings to him. "Any of these helpful?"

[thepizzalord]

"They could be," he says, paging through one of them. "Gotta start someplace, right?"

[slayers_desire]

"That is usually the rule of thumb." April smiles softly.

[thepizzalord]

Most of the pages in the books are not of interest to him, but each one has at least one section that seems relevant to what he needs to know. He copies down a few things here and there in his notebook, adding it to his notes from the other book.

"Did the other me explain how magic in my world works?"

[slayers_desire]

"A little bit." But it has been a while since her meeting with the other Harry.

[thepizzalord]

"Some stuff is kind of rigid, like rituals and ancient magics, but a lot of stuff is highly personalized. Words still have power, but my word for a fire spell is different from anyone else's because it's something I chose to mean that for me. It's a chosen focus, rather than the trigger that makes the spell happen. Enchantments are a bit more structured, but still pretty personalized, like potions. What the components mean to the caster is more important than what they actually are."

[slayers_desire]

"So you will still have to find a way to personalize these spells?"

[thepizzalord]

He nods. "Yep. Except I have to personalize it to a client, not myself, which is harder. And I have to intuitively know how the spell works before I can use it effectively."

[slayers_desire]

"So you need to know more about your client?"

[thepizzalord]

"Ideally, but I think I know what I need to about her." Client confidentiality is something he believes in quite a bit, so he doesn't want to say who she is. But he's fairly confident that his pop culture knowledge will let him tailor the spell to Poison Ivy quite easily.

[slayers_desire]

"That is an advantage then." April smiles. Wes comes over with a couple cups of tea.

"How is it going?" He smiles softly.

[thepizzalord]

"Found a few things that might help," Harry says with a nod. He's not much of a tea drinker usually, but he's never one to turn down hospitality. Unless he's in Faerie. Then he'll take his status as a guest, and never ever touch the food or drink.

"You've got quite the library here."