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Character(s): Christine
Status: Open
Location(s): In libraries in Krimnos and the City of Whatever it's Name is This Week
Date(s) April 1-17
About: Christine's idea led to a research compling mission, and a strange sight in Idan's libraries and bookstores.
Warnings: Only if you don't like reading about metal wasps.

The idea was one she thought probably wasn't feasible, else someone would have thought of it before. But it turns out the project is not only possible, but bigger than she could have imagined. Helping people in the future have access to more knowledge at their fingertips is a noble goal, but she has to admit that she's doing this for herself too. Not only will she hopefully get to use this book in her own lifetime, but she's getting paid for doing the legwork too.

{ krimnos }
She starts in the city of the Tinkers after they test their knowledge-gathering wasps on their own Academy's library first. Then she's set loose with a box containing the metal wasps and sent on her way. The project can be done at her own pace, but she's so excited that she heads to another library in Krimnos straight away.

She can be found sitting at a desk, thumbing through a book and giving someone a look, eyebrows raised. "Please don't swat at my wasps. They aren't going to sting you."

{ city of free peoples, aka freeps }
Her work in Krimnos is far from done. Gathering all the information in all the books will take time, but she wants to move on to other things. After a brief stop at home, she journeys southwest to the city of so much conflict recently, to see if King Ardis' soldiers have been in anymore scraps with werewolves, Defenders, or both and need her healing services. While in the area, she heads into the city to visit a library and sets a box on one of the tables. Opening the lid, the two metal wasps go flying out to scan as many books as they can. A patron looks at the wasps, looks at Christine, and looks at the falcon now sitting on the table before quickly clutching a book to their chest and scurrying to the front desk. Christine sighs and looks at her animas.

"I guess we'll have to get the information out of that particular book next time, hm?"

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Christine hates this. That much is super apparent to Strange. The way that static forms, the fact that her voice is far too calm, she is completely unhappy. And so, Strange goes a little on the defensive.

"What would you rather I do?" Strange grumbles. Though he's trying to hide it, he can't fully hide the note of pleading in his voice. "Smash the egg the moment I found it? Let him hatch on his own to die in the wild? That's too cruel. When I found the egg, I knew what I had to do. And as for the dragon himself, would you rather I lied to you about his entire existence? I'm not that sort of man."

He's always been far too open, the sort of person who wears his heart on his sleeve. That much is obvious to anyone who knows him.

He moves towards the closet in his room as he talks. While Strange starts to rummage for the mirror shard, Alistair looks over at Christine. He makes a small chirping noise as he walks over towards Christine, giving her an inquisitive look.

All Christine can do is exhale loudly through her nose as Strange responds, her eyes following him as he crosses the room. She can hardly condemn a man for rescuing a helpless creature, but she's also acutely aware that this creature has the potential to reshape the world with its mind and it's good to have a healthy dose of skepticism. Still, she doesn't outright scold him. It would simply lead to an argument.

From her perch on Christine's shoulder, Azoth knows quite well how her other half is feeling, but the inquisitive dragon receives a chirp in response from her while Christine stays silent.

"I can't stay long," she finally says, watching Strange's back even as she sees the dragon move closer out of the corner of her eye.

"Understandable," Strange says, from the closet. A moment later, he stands up, moves out of the doorway, and offers Christine a mirror shard, wrapped in some fabric.

"You need to stare at it, until you feel like you're about to blink. Just before that happens, the image will distort."

Alistair the dragonet is blissfully unaware about Christine's feelings towards dragons in general. So, he continues walking over towards Christine, getting close enough to smell her feet. He's a very talkative boy and keeps making chirping noises, as if Christine can respond to those.

Sensing that this is a tense moment, Azoth flies down off Christine's shoulder to the floor and chirps at Alistair to come over to her. She'll keep him entertained while Christine looks.

The fabric is gently pulled away from the mirror until Christine is pinching one corner of the mirror with the fabric, unsure if the shard is sharp. She stares into it and studies her own face. Fair complexion, blue-gray eyes, fine lines around her mouth both from laughter and frowns. Just as she starts to blink, the image shifts to show her staring back with scales starting to show. She quickly lowers the mirror to her side, biting the inside of her cheek.

"Maybe," she starts slowly, "Maybe it's a mistake. Maybe it adds an enchantment, instead of taking one away." She's desperate for any answer except the one that links her more closely with those wretched dragons.

Hey, new friend! Alistair chirps back at Azoth and awkwardly waddles over to go play with the falcon.

Strange just watches as Christine looks at the mirror. When she lowers the mirror to her side, he frowns. He suspected she would see the same thing: far too many of their number have seen it to be a coincidence. But if there was anyone who wouldn't see the scales when they looked at the mirror, it should have been her.

"We've received messages and scales from Logistykon. I don't think it's a mistake."

She covers the mirror once more and hands it back to him as tears sting her eyes.

"I'm becoming very tired of hearing that name," she states, not meeting his gaze. "I want to be left alone, and not have him breathing down my neck."

Turning away, she delicately sniffs back her tears and calls to Azoth in her mind. The falcon is currently flapping her wings and hopping along the floor to get Alistair to chase her, but she then lifts off to land on Christine's shoulder.

"I need to go. Things to think about, you know."

This is perfectly understandable. Strange nods at Christine, not even making any move to try and stop her. She didn't like the dragons, and yet their fates are growing more and more intertwined with the awakened.

"If you want to talk about any of this, you can always message me."

Granted, he knows his faith in the dragons might make things a bit hard for them to have a neutral conversation. But Christine is his friend. He wants to be there for her.

She nods silently, but turns away and heads to the door. It was too good to believe they were brought back to simply have a second chance at living their lives. They were brought back to serve someone, or do a task, and it's becoming increasingly clear that as free as she wants to be from Logistykon, she can't be.