tushanshu_logs | [OPEN] Septimus June catch-all

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[OPEN] Septimus June catch-all

Characters: Gaius Septimus and YOU!
Date: All of June
Location: Hospital, around Keeliai
Situation: Come chat with Septimus, whether about his organizing stuff or other things. Some threadstarters, do your own or request one!
Warnings/Rating: None yet.

A.: Hospital
After making his announcement--and, to a certain extent, throwing down a gauntlet—Septimus is at the hospital as much as starting to train in earnest allows. He can be found doing any number of tasks: making sure there is a ready supply of clean water, healing (sadly more and more important with the cultists and such—handling whatever administrative tasks he needs to, and frequently holding meetings whether they are actually on hospital business or not.

The very lucky few—and ones who know Septimus better—may be fortunate (or unfortunate) enough to notice when he begins to get stretched a little thin.

All the same, it’s the best place to find him.

B.: Keeliai
When he is not at the hospital, or doing what rest and food is necessary, Septimus is generally around various parts of Keeliai. Whether this is simply on regular-day wandering and exploring, or going out to practice, he is mostly easy to run into after standard work day hours or mid-day on what is supposed to be a lunch or dinner break. And these days he tends to have at least his long-sword on him when he isn’t actively healing.

When he is out practicing, he isn’t just armed but armored, in full Roman Legion-esque gear. Watching him, sometimes it’s just swordwork, but often he isn’t just doing that, he’s working with his furycrafting too. If you watch him practicing, his sword will often be on fire, he may be working with water and air and earth—earth and fire together, sometimes, for extra deadly combination—and even rarely wood.

C.: Other people’s locations
Given that some of the meetings he wants to happen aren’t going to be at the hospital, but at places whoever he’s meeting with feels most comfortable, sometimes you will get him turning up on your doorstep, maybe with paper in hand for notes, maybe not.

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Raine's lucky in that he had been headed to his office anyway; Septimus is slightly less lucky in that he'd been hoping for at least half an hour to himself to get some sitting and reading done--or, if he's honest, a nap. But apparently duty calls.

So he just locks down the weariness beneath his usual confidence (and he can only hope she doesn't have a way of sensing whether his energy is lower than it ought to be).

"Yes, I did. Come have a seat." He nods at the chair on the visitor side of his desk.

An unusual level of formality, she thinks, but takes the seat anyway, leaning her by now ever-present staff against the desk. "What's this about?" Raine asks, watching Septimus closely. She has no way of knowing for sure if he's tired, she's simply observing to see if she can pick up something about him or the situation.

When she's seated, Septimus absently flicks a hand slightly to make sure the door is firmly shut. Raine may feel the slight breeze of the windcrafting which does that; she will definintely feel the increase in air pressure as he seals the sound of the room in. This might not be the most sensitive discussion, but there's no harm in taking precautions.

"The announcement I made to the network, primarily, and the attack on the palace which precipitated it. You were there, I believe." Not entirely a question.

Her gaze follows his gesture, and she raises her brows slightly at the change in air pressure, but says nothing more on the subject. If he judges it necessary, that's his prerogative. "I was," she confirms. "Were you looking for details, or simply my redoubled assistance in the war effort going forward?"

She's happy to give either; Septimus seems to be taking quite a bit on himself, and could in her estimation likely use it.

He can't help it; he smiles faintly. On the one hand, people being voluntarily useful shouldn't surprise him so much--he does, after all, have some basic faith in people. On the other, though, he's aware how rare it truly can be, and having people step up without the structure of the Legion is gratifying.

"Both," he admits freely, "although taking them one at a time. I took some note who was present at the outset, but I couldn't keep as close track of where everyone was once we were inside the palace proper."

Old business before new and future business.

Raine nods, approving the sensibility of both taking things one at a time and of having tried to kept track. "I can't say for the others, but I wound up keeping company with a relative newcomer, Rex Salazar, and also Bakura, who I believe you may have had cause to hear of. We headed for an area that seemed under anomalously heavy guard, which turned out to be a newly excavated entrance to the prisons." She pauses in her train of thought there to ask, "Did you ever visit the prison before the corruption of the palace?"

She's been hoping that what she saw was not the conditions it was kept in under the Emperors.

For a moment, Septimus's face darkens noticeably with irritation at the mention of Bakura. He has good reason to dislike and distrust the boy, and now has to live with him. Suffice it to say that had he but known it, the icy dislike carries more traces of his upbringing than he usually allows himself to show.

It quickly turns mildly incredulous, however. "No," he replies quite dryly, "I never had that pleasure."

He's law-abiding! Promise!

Raine is also typically law abiding, but has seen more prisons than she ever really wanted to in one lifetime.

She does note Septimus's distasteful expression, spares a moment to idly wonder if there's anyone on the turtle who actually likes Bakura, and then moves on. "If you know someone who has, can you point me to them? I'd like to ask them about it. For now, suffice to say that the prison we found was more on the order of a dungeon. There were words written in blood on the walls, and Bakura was positive that a number of people died there." She goes on to detail the area and all that transpired, giving Septimus probably more information than he actually needed, and adds at the end, "To add to the irregularities, I also found a dagger in one cell. Of good quality- not something I would have expected."

As Raine talks, Septimus leans back and listens attentively, green eyes thoughtful. Eventually he does pull out a piece of paper and jot down a thought or two, though most of what she says gets stored away mentally for later contemplation (including that Bakura could be so sure of many people dying in one place; a disquieting thought). A flicker of revulsion crosses his face briefly at the mention of writing in bood on the walls, but for the moment he's submerged it in the cool calculation of a commander.

He can feel sick later, alone.

An eyebrow tilts up. "I wouldn't expect a force to leave a good weapon lying around, unless it were trapped somehow. Was it otherwise unexceptional?"

For her part Raine talks of probable horrors with a distant, neutral tone, and that varies little when she moves on to answering his question about the dagger. "For the most part. It reminds me a little of a magically worked weapon from my own world, in that it's definitely somewhat more than it seems. It's simple in design, too, the most remarkable portion being the bird on the pommel. I wish I knew why it was there; the incongruity is bothering me more than anything about the dagger itself."

While the mention of the bird does briefly startle Septimus, as he flashes on years of memories of his signet dagger, he pushes the thought aside. Still, after his own experience in the palace, the phrase 'magically worked' gets his attention enough to sit up and lean forward intently.

"Magically worked as in strengthened, or given some property or ability that a wielder could use? Bursts of energy or some such. Were you able to test it?" He'd seen those in action, after all, and he sighs.

"Frankly, that bothers me too. Then again, it's hardly as if those guards are highly trained, comparatively speaking." He's a little overconfident, yes, but they didn't frighten him much. Or at all. "Was it hidden, simply forgotten... or do you have a way to tell if our shadowy friend," with derision fairly dripping from his tone on that phrase, "left surprises in it?"

"Strengthened beyond what mundane metal is capable of. If there was something else to it, I couldn't find it." Raine gave a little shrug. "It's true that they're not highly trained, but still, I wonder... well, it seemed to have been simply forgotten. What senses I have, and what experimentation I had the chance to do, didn't turn up any sort of trap or unpleasant hanger-on, at the very least. Would you like a look at it? Doubtless you know more than I do about weapons."

Ruefully, Septimus admits, "I know how to use blades, and I'm a fair hand with metalcrafting," by which he means one of the best, "but I'm no smith. And frankly, all my training in applying crafting to objects has little use here. What most people call magic seems to have surprisingly little to do with furycrafting. Still, I suppose if you have it out and I've a few moments to spare some time, I could look. Which reminds me..."

Thinking about his immediate future--and the likely hefty work schedule it will involve, given his latest plans--has reminded him of point two he wanted to discuss with her.

Septimus reaches down to open a drawer of his desk and begin fishing around in it. "I assume you saw my more recent post to the network."

"Come by for tea some time," Raine suggests, one corner of her mouth quirking up. "My suitemate seems to enjoy making it, and I can vouch for the quality. If you happen to be in Earth some evening with time to spare, you'd be welcome." She's aware he likely has precious little, given how much he's doing, but the offer will stand.

She moves on. "I did. It was hard to miss." His movements make her curious, but she presumes he's about to answer the question she'd ask, so she holds her peace and waits.

He tosses her a quick smile, still rummaging through the drawer, at the offer of tea. "I appreciate it, and I'll keep it in mind." A few odds and ends--pens, mostly, and stones and other small objects, the kind that somehow seem to wind up in pockets with nowhere else to go--get temporarily deposited on the top of his desk as he hunts through the drawer for what he's looking for. Among them is a medallion, rather less of idle miscellany and actually looking quite delicately made, with a plunging eagle in flight.

Careful observation--like, say, that of a trained archaeologist--might note the style of it is identical to the previously discussed dagger, though the image itself is not.

"Even leaving that aside," he notes as he finally digs out what he was looking for, "I'd hoped to get this to you before now." He slides one of the coins he came across in Sinbrilee. It looks rather more Roman than local to Keeliai, actually--and thus nearly Aleran, which is why he chose it (besides the distinguishing looks).

As interesting as the coin doubtless is, Raine's more interested at the moment by the medallion Septimus pulls out of the drawer, and she reaches for that while it's on the desk, heedless of the fact it's probably his personal property. "What is this?" she asks, holding it up to the light to get a clearer view of the emblem. "And where did you get it? It's not the same image, but the style is very distinctly reminiscent of the bird on the dagger I mentioned."

The coin he is trying to give her sits untouched on the desk in front of her for the moment, sadly demoted in priority.

Raine is clearly not taken being recruited as a personal spy and agent nearly seriously enough, if that poor pseudo-Cursor coin is lying there neglected.

However, Septimus has gone quite tense at her question. Nothing in this whole blasted world has felt much like home, except what he's brought or had made himself; a question like hers is far too convenient.

"An eagle in flight?" he asks tersely. He doesn't even bother answering her questions directly, as he instead reaches for a rock in the drawer. He keeps several handy, now, for earthcrafting to whatever shape he happens to need at the moment--there are a couple larger slabs in the back of the room for maps. But making something the size of his palm into the family seal? He's known how to for so many years it doesn't even take thought.

"That sounds right--" She looks down at the rock he's crafted, stops, and blinks. "Yes, that's it exactly. It looks like I have something of yours. May I inquire as to the significance?" She hasn't missed that it's clearly something familiar to him, if he can generate a perfect replica that quickly. She takes one last look at the medallion, then slides it back to him. "I'll bring it by tomorrow."

Septimus swallows, harder than he'd intended to, and slips both rock and medallion back into his desk drawer. A part of him--an old, over-trained part--wants to snap that she is welcome to inquire and then refuse to answer her; a part just as large wants to insist on collecting it now. If that's what he thinks it is, it shouldn't even be here, in this city; it should be at home with Araris and Isana--with the baby. His son. (Or possibly daughter, but it seems unlikely.)

Instead, after a moment, he says by way of the simple explanation, "My father gave it to me when I was a boy." The rest hardly matters. "I-- would appreciate that greatly. Steel, traces of red and blue through the metal and the sheath?"

Just to be sure it's what he thinks it is. Surely someone else must have used the motif at some point, after all.

"Ah," Raine says. That's explanation enough for her; she's more than familiar with the behavior people exhibit toward relics of their parents. "Yes, that's accurate." She gives him a thoughtful look, but adds no more, trusting that if it was urgent he would say something. "I'll retrieve it for you, then."

And with that more or less settled, she picks up the coin he was trying to show her earlier. "You said you'd been meaning to give this to me earlier?" Presumably it is more than just a foreign coin.

"Thank you." It's all he trusts himself to say, and leaves it at that. Long-ingrained instincts scream that it's quite urgent, that the seal can't be outside family control like this, that it should be at home with Araris and Isana and the baby--

He clamps it down beneath the calm facade his father often wishedhe would maintain more often. Besides, he has business to conduct.

"Yes." Leaning back, Septimus forces himself out of memories of the past. "Quicker and more or less secure way to get in touch with me, if there's an emergency in the field or something of more immediate interest happens."

Or, of course, she needs to get in touch with him remotely and doesn't trust the consoles.

A brief examination of the coin reveals no hidden elements of technology that she can spot, and while she could likely suss out the magic attached to it given enough time and patience, it seems a waste of effort when there's someone present to explain. "I take it you're providing these to a number of people. Will they only connect to you?" There's value in a network, but Septimus can't be asked to serve as a relay station with the amount he's already taken on. "How does it work?"

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[OPEN] Septimus June catch-all

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