Lessons in Advanced Door-Opening [for Amelia Ronsam rogueinladysclothing]

[conjuredskies]

It’s been some while since they made their informal arrangement, but Felix hasn’t at all forgotten the light-footed rogue or the dance he promised her. A pact is a pact, no matter how many duties – foreseen and otherwise – have demanded his attention.

For that matter he and Verity haven’t been meeting for Geography Club quite so regularly, and the smells when he steps through the door of the Fox and Crosier make him regret that fiercely. Alchemy study may have to be relocated whenever possible. He scrapes some of the snow from his boots and leather armor, then strolls up to the desk chicken to ask after Amelia.

Comments

[rogueinladysclothing]

The shaking, while subtle, is definitely noticeable. She withdraws her hands quickly. "Sorry. I... That was my fault. I'm sorry."

Deep breaths, Amelia. Your world is still there. There's still a chance of getting home. Even if you've been here a very long time, and Spring is coming...

"I didn't mean to derail you. Or cut off your questions. Please, continue." Slowly, she raises her hands again and nods for him to start again. Distractions are good, and she will use her current teaching position to her advantage if she must.

[conjuredskies]

"Oh, there's nothing to apologize for." He blinks at her despite the quick reassurance. If she wants to keep going, he'll take the new pick and start again, but he's paying an awful lot more attention to the rogue by his side.

"I only meant to ask what sort of magic you'd encountered," he says carefully. "Perhaps I might be able to shed some light on what you saw..."

[rogueinladysclothing]

Amelia's gaze stays fixed on the work in front of them as she speaks. "I know what I saw, but I don't understand its place in my world, or how anyone brought something like it about in my world." She hesitates, but she doesn't sigh. This is obviously not an easy topic for her and is one that largely shaped her view of magic before she arrived in the Nexus.

"It was a demon. It stood nearly 7 feet tall, with a face like the helmet of an armored warrior, but it made entirely of bone and with holes where the eyes should have been. It had the body of a strong, fit soldier, but it was covered with bone-like armor and some kind of... red, molten ooze poured out from any wounds we inflicted. And when my friends and I killed it, it erupted in a spray of more of that same ooze." No matter how many times she tells others about that monster, she still shudders when she thinks of it. Today is no exception.

"Such things shouldn't exist in my world. I have no idea how or why it came to be."

[conjuredskies]

He's distracted from the lock, but in some measure that actually helps: he can't overthink it, so he's working more by feel, as he's meant to.

"That sounds... not unlike some constructs or daedra summoned by practitioners in my world. If I may ask... when you say demon, is that a particular sort of being in the tales of your world, or a general description?"

[rogueinladysclothing]

It's an unexpected side-effect of the conversation they're having, but one Amelia wouldn't object to if she realized it was going on.

She gives a half-hearted shrug. "It's the only word I have for what I saw. Perhaps it's not right, but my world doesn't have constructs or daedra. 'Monster' is a generally accepted term for what I fought, but it was more than a simple, mindless brute. It had at least some amount of a mind, and that's why I call it a demon."

[conjuredskies]

"That's fair. I just wanted to make sure we were reading from the same page, so to speak." He nods. (In Felix's view, there is no correct way to use the word 'demon', but that is a whole other pet peeve that he can't reasonably apply to other worlds and tongues.)

"The ooze that came from its wounds - was it hot? Fiery? Did it speak?"

[rogueinladysclothing]

Best to leave talking of pet peeves for another day. Amelia's worked up enough as it is.

"It was hot and molten, like liquid metal when it's been heated by a blacksmith, and it burned where it was in contact with the skin long enough." She has a few small scars to prove that. "It didn't speak, but it anticipated movements, listened to our calls to each other and changed directions of attacks based on them. Until we really angered it, that is, at which point we prayed for enough strength to make it through and fought with all we had against the raging brute." There's one large scar to remind her of that part of the fight, too.

[conjuredskies]

He nods, understanding that all too well. "It took a great deal of nerve to stand and fight something so... unknown to you. The adventurers of my world- well, they've heard tales of such otherworldly foes, if nothing else."

He tests carefully with the pick, still finding questions to ask in the meantime. "So, ah, the bone armor it wore - did it look like something constructed? Or grown?"

[rogueinladysclothing]

"I don't envy them that." She likes her simple world with its lack of magic. Or, rather, she liked it. After this incident, she can't claim the same simplicity she once did.

It's getting harder to suppress the shaking of her hands as she continues to answer his questions. "Grown, I think. It was as if... the armor was a part of it, not something separate." How are the details so fuzzy already? For months on end she had seen it every time she closed her eyes.

...had the year and a half since the incident really passed so quickly?

[conjuredskies]

"It has its charms, I assure you..." But a mage would say that, wouldn't he?

Noticing the shaking, he sets the delicate picks aside and catches her hands gently, studying her face with concern. "I'm sorry, Amelia. I didn't mean to distress you. It's often hard on a person to recall such things - I should have remembered."

[rogueinladysclothing]

That whole 'physical contact for comfort' thing is still something she doesn't understand. She jumps at the sudden contact and intakes a breath sharply. There's a fleeting moment of terror until she's able to process what's going on. Felix isn't going to hurt her. She knows that. They may not know each other very well, but if her friends trust him, then she should, too.

That said, they aren't that close and she's not a physical person when the topic isn't violence. She carefully pulls her hands back with a soft sigh. "No, it's all right. You were curious and I respect that. I'm the same way, after all." There's a small smile for him here, but it's a sad one. "It's difficult to speak of anything related to my home, though. I've been away for so long and it... rather hurts."

Damnit, Amelia, don't you dare start crying in front of Felix. Wipe your eyes and be done with it. There's nothing nonchalant about the movement, of course, but hopefully it's not enough to cause a scene with him.

[conjuredskies]

Okay, touching was a mistake, if not a tad presumptuous. He withdraws when she does, inclining his head.

"I understand. I get quite homesick when I start speaking of Cyrodiil." It would be ten times worse if he were trapped here. But Amelia clearly doesn't want to make a scene... "Perhaps we should speak of something else while we finish our lesson, and then go for lunch."

[rogueinladysclothing]

Many people in the Nexus are from some version of Earth, in which frequent contact is completely normal. It's not a terrible assumption to make, but it's one that most people don't make twice with Amelia.

She wants to lie, to say she's all right, but there's little point if he's offering to change the subject. "Thank you, I appreciate that." With a deep breath and a quick nod toward the door, she gets in place to begin their lessons again.

"So," she says after a moment, "I'm sure you don't want to talk about it, but what could possibly draw a legionnaire to the art of lock picking?"

[conjuredskies]

Felix himself is particularly tactile for Tamriel, but he's used to there being strict rules about what's allowed within different relationships. He's not used to people being as wary as Amelia is, but he takes the message that she doesn't consider him close enough for that, and adjusts accordingly.

He may be able to coax more out of her later, but trust needs to be earned.

"Well, that's simple enough. I'm sure you can imagine how many locks we have around our barracks and forts. Somebody needs to test them... or at least work out better ways of defending them." That answer is smooth and easy and really incomplete.

[rogueinladysclothing]

Time and patience will help on that trust front. Felix has little to worry about for earning it eventually - Amelia already likes him as a person and her friends trust him, which is a great start.

The answer may be smooth, but it's also complete and utter bullshit. And try as he might, she knows that. "You're a mage. You don't need to know how to pick locks when you can open or knock the door down with magic."

Felix will find that lying to her, or even misleading her, is an easy way to add to the amount of time it'll take to earn her trust. At least when it comes to things that could come back and bite her in the ass. She frowns at him. "Why won't you tell me the truth? I'm not some maid in need of protection, if that's your worry."

[conjuredskies]

"Well, but lock-opening spells are definitely not in my school of magic. I'm not sure anyone even knows those any more," he points out. Not that he should expect Amelia to know these nuances.

"I don't doubt you know how to use that pretty armory you have inside, but suppose it's better for both of us that I don't commit to any details?" He likes covering his own ass too.

[rogueinladysclothing]

"You really expect someone to come back and ask me about it?" She raises a curious eyebrow in his direction. "Furthermore, you think I would say anything? And before you even ask, I know my way around truth telling herbs well enough to counteract them." ...well that says a lot about what she does with her free time, doesn't it?

[conjuredskies]

That's certainly something he doesn't hear too often. Felix finds himself blinking at her before he snaps back to the present and sighs. "I don't know. There just isn't much to tell yet. I want to add to my repertoire of skills. There's a new trick I'm in the midst of developing, and I can't perfect it without understanding how to do- well, this."

[rogueinladysclothing]

"Trick?" The concept of magic tricks is completely foreign to her, which is understandable given the lack of magic in her world. Sleight of hand is one thing, but no one ever claims it to be a magic trick. "I don't understand what you mean."

If Felix ever wondered why Amelia has so few friends, he can be assured that he's now found the reason. She is trying to work on it, though.

[conjuredskies]

"Oh, we mages have our tricks of the trade. Just as I understand thieves do. Perfecting this one - this particular spell - requires I learn the feel of a lockpick. And since I don't yet know what I'll use it for - nor if it will work at all - I'm a little shy about the details."

[rogueinladysclothing]

"Ahh." She doesn't fully buy it, but she shrugs it off. It's obvious she won't get anywhere by pressing him further. "Good thing you knew a willing rogue to help you in your quest," she adds after a brief pause. He should be able to tell she's teasing again by the smirk tugging at the corner of her lips.

[conjuredskies]

“Indisputably,” he agrees with a warm smile for her. “Believe me, there’s nothing I appreciate more than a well-placed friendship – even if you can’t always answer all of one another’s questions.” It’s an admission, and a promise – he’d do the same for her, few question asked.

“All this pinching is going to cramp my hands,” he adds. “Do you have a recommendation as to where we go for lunch? I know the food here is excellent, but you know the area better than I.”

[rogueinladysclothing]

"Not all questions need answering," she quips. Someone knows all too well the importance of not giving away everything.

"A break might be in order, then. But... I'm afraid I'm not very familiar with a lot of the restaurants in the Nexus. I don't... really go out that much." Her cheeks turn a light shade of pink as she withdraws her hands from his. "But the food here at the inn is amazing. Wonderful hearty stews and breads, fresh roasts, and a few sweet wines, if you're so inclined. I don't know if you were hoping for something different from what you would normally eat in your world, though. If you are... I know a place with delicious pizza we could go to." Someone was never meant to be an explorer, it seems.

[conjuredskies]

“‘Pizza’?” he echoes, before it clicks. “Oh, is that how you say it? I haven’t actually tried it, although it seems to be on all the menus here. What is it like?”

[rogueinladysclothing]

"It's hard to describe in terms of foods from worlds like ours, but basically it's a very thing bread-like crust topped with a tomato-based sauce and cheese. It can have more ingredients on top as well, such as various meats, vegetables, and fresh herbs. It's actually quite delicious and there are literally thousands of combinations to try with all the variations that have exist." It's hard not to smile when she talks about pizza, because pizza also means more ginger ale. And that is something amazing that must also be shared.