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Post by Nerius on Feb 23, 2020 5:27:30 GMT -6
It was mid morning, and still rather chilly, not helped by the sun having remained behind clouds all morning. The plaza, which was part of the community center, was still coated with a layer of snow, though the paths had been cleared to make walking easier. Nerius actually enjoyed the weather, Labs winters were quite mild compared to where he was from, and this felt more like mid spring to his standards. That was why he had decided to walk to the local shops, that and the fact that they were close by. He was out to get some shopping and errands done, which was why he didn't have a pet of any sort with him, many shops didn't allow creatures inside.
He had gotten slightly sidetracked by the plaza itself, despite living in the area for a while, Nerius had never actually been through it. Most the trees were devoid of leaves this time of year, but there were a few bits of greenery peeking out beneath the snow, and there were lights strung between the trees. It was rather pretty, and he'd gotten a bit side tracked exploring, but it wasn't like he had to be somewhere at a strict time.
That was what he was still doing when Nerius sensed something he wouldn't have expected to; magic. That alone wasn't too unusual, there were more magic users and items at the Labs than anywhere he'd ever been before, but it was unusually strong. He wasn't right on top of it either, though it was close by, and he looked around to see if he count pinpoint an actual source...
(Nerius: 1/10)
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Post by Jack on Feb 23, 2020 10:02:29 GMT -6
[Sever Bond]
Window shopping was nice to do whenever she had some free time, but she had to force it a lot of the time. Jack peered in the window at Nature's Bounty to see the root pairs one could use to breed wild offspring, and she fingered the credit pouch at her hip at the same time, debating on whether or not she should splurge for a few more. No... best to save up right now, Alura had gotten some new Dragon Oak in and she was interested in seeing what she could find there at the same time. She loved the species, and it only made sense to have a few if she loved them, right?
Jack sighed and shook her head before moving on toward the plaza, wondering if she should grab a bite to eat before she got back to work. Today was the day she was working as the Archmage's Understudy, and while that usually meant holing up in the tower doing paperwork, she had managed to talk all the assistants to let her be in the field today, it was too nice of a morning, even though it was cold for her and the sun was behind the clouds. She just didn't want to be cooped up in the tower, more likely, she would rather be outside than anything else. Honestly she would rather be mining up crystals at the moment, but alas, she couldn't focus on that today.
With her credit pouch on one hip, her bag over her shoulder and settled on the opposite hip as well, and another, more interesting pouch at her other hip, she wandered throughout to see what she could find. The other pouch held her abilities, her magic, and she had to tune out the pulsing thrum her nodes made whenever she had them with her or else it would overpower her a little bit. It was a good thing she could tune it out, though it had taken some work indeed. She paused by a little cafe on the plaza and sat down at one of the tables, when she saw someone looking rather confused across the way a little bit. Her brow furrowed, she hoped she wasn't the cause, sometimes whenever she had all of her nodes, she turned heads. It was a price she had to pay. If it was her and her magic, they would come over soon enough out of curiosity, she figured, and she sipped on a drink the waitress brought her as she watched.
[Jack: 1/10]
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Post by Nerius on Feb 25, 2020 2:58:49 GMT -6
The magic was strong, surprisingly so, but that made the direction easy to place. It was in the direction of the shops, it could have been someone's personal item, but it also could be something for sale in a shop. He was always drawn to magic, but that possibility only encouraged him. There was a path in that direction, leading to the shops, which Nerius followed. It only got stronger the closer he got, and by the time he reached the shops, it had gotten to the point of being disorienting.
He was vaguely aware of a cafe across the way, and the magic was coming from that direction, though direction was all he could tell, and not the exact location. He was actually starting to reconsider if locating the source was actually a good idea... actually no, it probably wasn't, but with magic that strong there was no way he'd not investigate. So, while he was a little wobbly, continued in that direction.
Or tried to. Nerius only made it another ten feet or so before the force of the magical energy hit him like a rampaging thundergug. The raw intensity was overwhelming, and it was.. jumbled, like multiple instruments trying to play multiple different songs at once. Spots flashed across his vision, and he made a small noise of pain, one hand going to his head. The other, he tried to keep his balance with, everything was spinning, but there was nothing for him to grab hold of, and his hand sunk into the snow as he stumbled, dropping to one knee.
(Nerius: 2/10)
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Post by Jack on Feb 25, 2020 17:02:49 GMT -6
Watching with a frown on her face, the woman saw as the person stumbled and then fell to their knee, hands in the snow. She shot to her feet after she put her cup down on the table and charged over to him, sliding to him on her knees when she realized she was close enough to accidentally run into him. Without hesitating, she reached out to touch his forehead to see if he had a fever of some sort, and summoned a light over her shoulder so she could see him a little bit better.
"Hey, are you okay?" Jack asked worriedly as she packed some snow together and put it onto his forehead, hoping to cool him off a bit to see what she could do about making him feel a little better. It never occurred to her that she might be the issue, considering all of her nodes and magic at this point, plus the fact of her standing and that she would be making more nodes whenever she got the crystals for it.
[Jack: 2/10]
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Post by Nerius on Feb 26, 2020 2:39:50 GMT -6
Then somehow, it got worse. The magic suddenly surged, his vision started to get dark at the edges, and he couldn't think. If he had been able to, Nerius might have realized it was caused by the magic source suddenly shooting closer, but he was unaware of that, and the woman sprinting over to him. He actually blacked out a bit, and by the time the woman slid to a stop next to him, he had fallen backward into the snow.
He lost consciousness for a few seconds, but slowly, Nerius started to become a little more aware. The magic, of course, was the first thing, and still almost overpowering, but after a little while he was able to notice other things. Like the fact that he was.. laying in the snow? Huh, when had that happened? The second thing he became aware of, once he opened his eyes, was the woman, who appeared concerned, looking down at him. She might have said something, but he didn't catch it if she had, his head still ached and spun, and words were a bit more than his brain could handle at the moment. Which was why "...huh?" was as best a response as he could make.
(Nerius: 3/10)
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Post by Jack on Feb 26, 2020 20:23:26 GMT -6
A breath of relief was released as the man fluttered open his eyes and actually spoke, even though it was a vague question, more of a grunt than anything. Jack chewed on her lip and then dug around in her bag for a vial and unstoppered it with her teeth. "Here you go, try to drink this, it helps with pain if you're hurting," she told him, concerned. It didn't bother her that he was a complete stranger, she knew her duty when she was around people, especially when she was at her job. It didn't matter that she was out of the tower, most people seemed to know her anymore, but she didn't take that for granted.
"I'm Jack, are you alright?" she asked, concern still in her voice, brow furrowed as she tried to help him into a sitting position. She really wanted to get him out of the snow, but didn't know if he could move just yet, she didn't know how hurt he was, or what he was hurting from. That was the hardest part, and she nervously touched her node pouch on her hip, wishing there was more she could do.
[Jack: 3/10]
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Post by Nerius on Feb 28, 2020 12:57:35 GMT -6
It took him a few seconds to process what the woman asked, something about if he was in pain. Which, yes, he was, and currently had the mother of all headaches. His next words weren't a response to that however, but a mumbled "How many nodes do you have?" Normally, Nerius wouldn't have been so forward about asking that sort of thing. Magic, especially when it came from pieces of your soul, could be a very personal thing. At the moment though, his filter was just as fried as the rest of his brain.
He might not have responded verbally to it, but if she had a potion or something that would help with the headache, he wouldn't say no. Though, he couldn't really drink it while lying down, and he wasn't thrilled about laying in the snow anyway. He accepted the help, and would have struggled to sit up on his own anyway, but this made things easier.
He still looked dizzy and unfocused, but was able to answer her next question. "Nerius," he replied, giving his own name, before pausing to sluggishly attempt to wipe the snow of his forehead. He pressed his palms to his eyes for a moment, hoping it would help. It didn't, and he moved to simply holding his head before continuing, "I'm.. I'm not injured." It didn't look the case though, and he was probably going to have to explain this.
(Nerius: 4/10)
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Post by Jack on Feb 29, 2020 19:00:14 GMT -6
"Oh, uh, six?" Jack said, confused. Sure, not many people had as many nodes as she did, but it wasn't that uncommon, was it? She shook her head a little and went to help him up after he drank down the mixture, pleased that he would trust her so easily without knowing who she was. "Well, I'm glad you're not hurt, but what happened? Does it happen often?" she asked, tilting her head a little as she looked him over.
Well, it hadn't been the most polite question he'd asked her, but whatever she figured, at least she'd answered him and that was good as well. A frown crossed her face and she crossed her arms over her chest as well, "Nice to meet you though Nerius. Do you need to get anywhere? I can help, I can get my Thundergug here to take you somewhere on the cart as well, I figure."
[Jack: 4/10]
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Post by Nerius on Mar 9, 2020 19:30:37 GMT -6
Six, six freaking nodes! No wonder it'd had such an effect, the highest concentration of magic he'd been this close to before was about the equivalent of two nodes. Six was.. a lot, and Nerius might have been feeling a bit envious if he were capable of feeling anything other than 'oww' at the moment. He hoped whatever Jack had given him to drink would help; normally he didn't trust easily, but again, he was still pretty out of it.
But out of it or not, he did need to explain what had happened. "Nn, kind of.. not usually this bad." Okay, that was a terrible description, and out of order. He'd better try it again, maybe from the beginning. "I've.. Always been able to sense magic. Similar to how some people here learn to pick up on it, except it's a natural sensitivity." He paused a little here, partially to collect his words better, and partially because his head still felt awful. "Very strong sources can be.. disorienting, or overwhelming. This was.. a lot more than usual." Six nodes of magic would do that, and he may have inadvertently explained why he'd asked, as well.
"Out of the snow, at least," he may not have minded cold weather, but Nerius didn't really want to be just sitting in a pile of snow either. Especially since it was starting to melt a little, and get his cloths wet. "Then to a bench or chair or something." Long distance travel didn't sound appealing at the moment, he didn't usually get motion sickness, but the movement of a cart probably wouldn't help things at the moment. "I'd rather not travel to far yet."
(Nerius: 5/10)
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Post by Jack on Jun 27, 2020 0:07:57 GMT -6
"Okay, chair then," Jack said, and went to help him to the little cafe she had been sitting at when he had collapsed, "I'll get you something warm to drink as well, especially if it's my fault, there's nothing much I can do to help out except for that I suppose..." She trailed off a little and chewed on her lip, she hadn't known there were people out there sensitive to magic, but that was her own fault for not researching things completely like she usually did. Quite honestly, she had just been excited to have magic and that had been that.
Hmmm.... maybe... "Aside from getting rid of them, is there anything I can do to lessen the issue with the nodes?" she asked him. If she didn't ask, there was no real way of knowing, now was there? She tried to learn from every experience, and she hoped that this would work to her advantage, as much as she hated using him as a kind of lab experiment. There was always something to learn, and hopefully he wouldn't fault her for one of her little quirks.
[Jack: 5/10]
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Post by Nerius on Jun 28, 2020 1:34:43 GMT -6
Nerius accepted the help, and though he was able to walk to the cafe without issue, he was still rather wobbly, and reliant on Jack's support. It was a relief to reach a chair, and he flopped rather inelegantly into it.
Oh, she was speaking again. It took him a moment to process the words, but he did respond, "Thank you. Tea, if possible." Ordinarily he would have gone for hot chocolate, or a mocha, and a snack to go with it, but with how he was feeling, something light like tea seemed like the best choice.
Nerius tried to shake his head to her next question, and immediately regretted it as the world spun again. Supporting his head in on hand, the other arm sprawled across the table, he tried again to answer, though what he had to say was unlikely to be helpful. "Not really, I generally just have to acclimate to it over time." At least, that was what he'd done in the past with powerful sources of magic, though he'd never come across something this intense to need anything more than that.
Though, after a moment, an idea came to him, "It's possible a sort of magically resistant or nullifying creature might help, but I have never tried it." He also didn't own anything like that either, so he had no way of testing it.
(Nerius: 6/10)
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Post by Jack on Jun 28, 2020 11:16:42 GMT -6
Jack ordered for him once he told her what he wanted, and then waited before pressing a few credits into the waitresses hand. She pushed the mug over to the man and frowned a little. She wished there was something she could do to help him out, aside from ordering expensive equipment, which she didn't have the right currency for. The store you could order equipment from had also been quiet for quite some time, she was still waiting on orders for herself as well, and she hoped nothing bad had happened, but it wouldn't be worth it at the moment would it? Still, it was an option, and she brought it up.
"There's a shop that takes special currency who could probably make you a hat or something with magical resistance? Their workload is pretty heavy though, so it might take awhile, but it's worth looking into, isn't it?" Jack offered with a wave of her hand. She hoped there was something she could do if this was how she affected people who were magically sensitive, she hadn't thought of that before, so this had come as quite a shock to her.
[Jack: 6/10]
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