For the Blue Beetle

I am a wizard. My name is Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden. Conjure by it at your own risk

[forthebluebeetle-blog]

ooc

Wizard-Mun is currently in Japan, and will be there for another week or so so I'll pop in when I can, but you can take it as I'm on a semi-hiatus.

Be back in a week ya'll!

[poorbastardmiko-deactivated2012]

Way too much fucking alcohol [Closed//Harry]

[poorbastardmiko-deactivated2012]

The wizard’s logic was sound. The more the enemy doesn’t know, the better. Plus, Reimu seriously doubted there was anything in this world that was similar to whatever Harry had shot ou-

Wait, classes?

…Whoops. 

“Y-Yeah, I guess. But I had that hangover, so… yeah, not going.” Besides, today was boring classes day. Which is every day because fuck these classes they are the most useless shit she had ever sat through.

“A-Aren’t you supposed to be working?” Turning the question back at him. Genius.

[forthebluebeetle-blog]

Harry calmly finished off the sandwich and smiled at the girl. "I am. I'm patrolling the student dorms today. While we were sitting here talking, I was running a search of the area through magic."

He held up a hand to forestall any argument the miko might have. "Relax, no one will notice it." Harry fished out a small pill box. Inside were bits of what looked like Playdoh. "I have bits of these stuck around the campus. Since they're all from individual cans, they're all part of the same whole. So using magic, I can "listen" from each of them simply by using one part of the whole." 

Harry leaned back on the bench and grinned at her. "Pretty handy sometimes, magic. Also useful for keeping beer chilled."

[poorbastardmiko-deactivated2012]

Way too much fucking alcohol [Closed//Harry]

[poorbastardmiko-deactivated2012]

And not one word of that reached Harry’s brain, did it?

Y’know what? Whatever. The wizard had his fun. “Just remember, it’s a game. That means you can’t kill with it. And please try not to use it too much in the open. I doubt Yukari would let it pass if more Outside humans learned about spellcards…” The last line was mumbled, since it was more of the shrine maiden reprimanding herself than her reprimanding the wizard. Granted, Reimu thought that even just Harry knowing about spellcards wasn’t going to sit well with the sukima youkai. She doubted Yukari’s rage would be as bad as that one time with the kirin, but it still wouldn’t be pretty.

“Is there anything else you wanna know?”

[forthebluebeetle-blog]

"Ah, but they won't know it's not lethal, will they? As long as it hurts, the logical assumption would be that it's lethal, and cause them to be more careful," Harry pointed out triumphantly.  

He sat back down on the bench, replacing the card in his pocket. "Other than how to make the cards, which I doubt you'll answer, yes." Harry turned his gaze to the girl and frowned. "Don't you have classes?" 

[poorbastardmiko-deactivated2012]

Way too much fucking alcohol [Closed//Harry]

[poorbastardmiko-deactivated2012]

Reimu was just gonna go ahead and assume/hope that he didn’t mean actual stars of death.

“Yes, as long as there is some sort of way to dodge it and it’s still in the time limit, you can do whatever you want. Some advice, though. Work on the names.” She hadn’t heard a spellcard name that ridiculous since fighting the Tanuki. Seriously, though. ‘Pseudo-Exorcism of the Stupid Shrine Maiden’? How rude.

“Spell names usually work like this: Somethingsomething Sign [Somethingsomething]. The Sign is usually something that has to do with the danmaku you’re using at the time. The black-white magician uses stars, so most of her cards are ‘Star Sign [blahblah]’. Unless it’s something special, like a signature move. The magician has her [Master Spark]. I have my [Fantasy Heaven]. And so on and so forth.” The shrine maiden eyed Harry. His enthusiasm reminded her of the aforementioned black-white. It would have been slightly disgusting if it wasn’t so nostalgic. “You need some more practice if you ever want to reach that point, though.” 

[forthebluebeetle-blog]

"Hmmmm."

Harry took a look around, ensuring there were no other students, then two-fingered the card out of his pocket and flicked it into the sky. "[I Find Your Lack of Agility Disturbing!]"

The same pattern appeared, and in its wake, Harry raised his staff and snapped, "Fuego!"

The projectiles bracketed the tide of fire, neatly closing off any avenues of exit. Any opponent in front of him would be forced to dodge to either sides, or retreat a fair distance to escape both the projectiles and the wave of fire. Harry lowered the staff as the fire and flying lightsabers disappeared. "Nah. Having this level is enough. It's more like having another card up my sleeve than making it my new form of combat." He paused, then smiled. "Heh. Card up my sleeve."

'Yep, I'm pretty sure no one else uses spell cards back in Chicago. This'll take just about anyone off guard, probably even most of the White Council,' Harry thought to himself. 

[poorbastardmiko-deactivated2012]

Way too much fucking alcohol [Closed//Harry]

[poorbastardmiko-deactivated2012]

Well. Reimu didn’t actually expect Harry to actually pull it off. But he did.

And what the fuck was up with those danmaku? They were like curvy lasers, but not curvy and had some weird metal shit at the end of them. It probably wasn’t worth asking about in the first place anyway. “Uh… Yeah, it’s a start.” In actuality, the wizard’s ability to use the spellcards was astounding. Spellcards were extremely hard to control, and even though Reimu was able to pull it off in her first try (albeit with a lot of unwanted training), most humans can’t do it without trashing a lot of cards at first. Even Marisa, one of the only people Reimu can say is near her skill level, had to go through a lot of spellcards before pulling it off. 

[forthebluebeetle-blog]

Harry was rather pleased. He could shoot lightsabers. Screw fire and frost, shooting lightsabers is how I'm gonna fight now, he thought to himself.

He flicked the card into the air and caught it again. "Hmmm. I wonder if I can make it shoot Death Stars that shoot Death Stars that shoot Star Destroyers ..." he wondered out loud. Harry stared at the card, a speculative expression on the face. "... so there's no actual limit to the number of projectiles, as long as they have a path to dodge, right?" he said, continuing to stare at his card.

Harry blinked. His card. My card. He grinned, and slipped the card into his pocket.

[poorbastardmiko-deactivated2012]

Way too much fucking alcohol [Closed//Harry]

[poorbastardmiko-deactivated2012]

“Yes, that’s correct.”

By that point, there were no more students lingering around. Probably due to classes. Which Reimu should probably be attending. Oh well, she could use her hangover as an excuse. The point was, there was no one wandering around, so it should be okay to show her magic. The shrine maiden stepped far away from the wizard, and uttered her spell.

“Dream Sign「Duplex Barrier」”

Rays of light spread out from Reimu’s card, creating two boxes of light, one inside the other. From the rays shot out hundreds of paper amulets, flying straight out until hitting the rays’ plane. They seemed to disappear, until they shot out of the next barrier, in different places. Luckily, Reimu had toned down the spell, so that they would stay in the barriers. After a few seconds, everything dissipated as quickly as they had appeared.

“That’s what mine look like, although I weakened it considerably so I wouldn’t hit you. In theory, yes, they could appear to be bunnies. I’ve met a person who shot out things in the shape of dogs and birds, so anything is possible.”

Harry’s last question caught her off-guard. “Huh?!” She always had a spare blank card lying around, in case she came up with some sort of new spell, but was it really okay to let him use it? 

…Well, maybe it wouldn’t be too bad if she let him try once. She handed him the card. “Fine. Only one. But there are rules you have to follow. This is a game, after all. It has to be in a pattern, you can’t go in trying to make it impossible to dodge, and it has to last at least 30 seconds, but no longer than 3 minutes. Just write down a fancy spell name, focus your magic into it, and try to imagine what pattern it would be in.” 

[forthebluebeetle-blog]

Harry's face lit up like a kid at Christmas.

He took the card and turned it over. It looked rather unremarkable, beyond the normal magical sigils and runes that your average magical item had. "Last 30 seconds, no longer than 3 minutes, fancy spell name ..."

Harry took the card and stared at it. "And it has to have a pattern and I have to leave room for them to breathe, huh ..." He stared at the card and thought hard. Harry moved off the bench and sat on the ground. After fifteen minutes of silence, he suddenly smiled brightly, and turning to hide the card from Reimu, scribbled something. Then he enclosed the card in his hands and concentrated; he slowly fed magic into the card, keeping the pattern in his mind.

After a few minutes, he sighed, and smiled at Reimu, card in hand. "I think I did it! Well, let's see how it looks!"

He tossed the card into the air, and uttered, "[I Find Your Lack Of Agility Disturbing]!"

There was a flash of light, and three silvery white orbs flew out, spaced evenly. Moments later, each one spat out six flying lightsabers, and those lightsabers each released six more lightsabers. The magical projectiles flew into the distance for a while before disappating.

"Well, the pattern is a bit basic, maybe. But it's a start, right?" he said hopefully, turning to Reimu.

[poorbastardmiko-deactivated2012]

Way too much fucking alcohol [Closed//Harry]

[poorbastardmiko-deactivated2012]

Creatures? That’s ridicul-

Riiight. Reimu hadn’t explained all of the spellcard stuff in a long time, so she forgot to describe what danmaku actually were. 

There was a comparison the gap youkai always made when talking about it. Maybe that would make some sense. “Sorry to dash your hopes, but it isn’t anything that extravagant. They’re similar to something you people call ‘bullets’. They’re little energy-filled objects that shoot at the opponent, or just anywhere, really.” Danmaku don’t discriminate. That’s why even watching a spellcard battle is extremely dangerous.

“What they look like depends on the person using them. They can be anything from orbs of light, charms, arrows, stars, curvy lasers… you name it. Users infuse some of their own magic into the cards. Once again, the limit of their power depends only on the limit of the user’s imagination.”

[forthebluebeetle-blog]

Harry turned this admittedly alien version of magical combat over in his mind. "So ... basically danmaku is like ... a salvo of bullets or something. And you say that the projectiles depend on the person using them you say."

A speculative look crossed his face. "So ... let's say this person is extremely fluffy. Say he likes bunnies, cute things, flowers and stuff like that. So is there a possibility he'll shoot ... I dunno rainbows or something?" Then a second, notably more circumspect look slipped across his face. "Say, you said anybody can use these spell cards, right? So ... you uh, wouldn't happen to have a spare ... ?"

[dekomories-deactivated20121216]

☆ arrival. [OPEN]

[dekomories-deactivated20121216]

Sanae screamed. That’s it…they got her…her disguise wasn’t of any use anymore. She tried to turn around to look her opponent in the eyes but she was tangled up pretty tight.

“Let go of me!!”, she yelled and began struggling.

Sanae shivered. It couldn’t be….that this was the hideout of the good side? Was she in their headquarters right now? She had to act as if she were one of them.

“M-My name is the Mjörnir Hammer, Dekomori Sanae! I am new here, desu.”

[forthebluebeetle-blog]

Harry eyed the weird blonde. "The "Mjörnir Hammer"?" His eyes went to the weights in her hair. "You mean your hair?" Harry's eyes went back to the blonde, who was still bound quite tight to his staff by her own ... hair. "I don't think Thor would appreciate you naming your ... hair hammer ... after Mjörnir."

"You're quite energetic for someone who's new here," he said. Harry looked around; more than a few students were looking at the weird girl who was tied to his staff by her ... hair ... 'I don't think I've ever had to focus on someone's hair ever since Deidre.' he thought to himself. "Punishment for dangerous behaivor," he said, and thwacked her on the forehead. While she was wincing in pain, he pushed the staff out of her hair with a focused push of power, causing the staff to fly up into the air.

Moments later, he caught the staff as it fell back to the earth. Idly, Harry spun it as he said to the girl,"New here, right? Like I said I'm a security guard. Do you need help getting anywhere?"

[misfortunateflaky-blog]

Thief on the loose! ►OPEN // INTRO◄

The redhead wrapped her thin arms around her small, shivering torso as she roamed the outside of Tancho Academy curiously, taking in every sight there was to see. The temperature here was much colder than it was back at home and, for someone who was almost always cold, Flaky would certainly have a lot of things to get used to at this new place. Her large ruby orbs darted around as she quickly made her way through the entrance of the school, a sigh of relief escaping her lips as the warmth from the heaters seemed to engulf her. Her knees wobbled slightly as she walked down the nearly-empty hallway, searching for her first class.

The thought of being somewhere completely new without all of her friends scared Flaky, but the tragic things that continuously happened back home was what caused her to move away in the first place. She just couldn’t take all of the insanity there anymore! It wasn’t like anyone would blame her… Right? And she was sure to make new friends! She hoped.

The feeling of the loose strap on her backpack being tugged caused the girl to stiffen up and slowly turn her head to face the person she assumed was trying to catch her attention. Some tall, muscular guy with greased black hair who looked too old to still be in school tightened his grip on her backpack and proceeded to yank it, causing Flaky to wince and slip out of the straps, breaking herself free. 

“H-Hey you can’t take that…! I-I have important things in there! L-Like lunch money!” Perhaps that wasn’t the best thing to say to someone trying to steal her belongings in the first place because at the mention of ‘money’, the stranger’s smile grew smug. 

“H-Help!! Can someone h-help me?!” She cried out as she reached for the backpack, which the male was holding above her tauntingly. 

[forthebluebeetle-blog]

Harry heard the call for help, and reacted accordingly.

A quick sprint in the direction of the shout found a small red haired girl being bullied by a man who was holding onto a backpack. It looked like the man was about to grab her backpack. He raised his staff, about to blow him away, but paused. Harry remembered his promise to Reimu, so instead of throwing wind at him like he normally would, he whispered a quick apology to his staff and ...

Threw it right at the would-be thief, propelling the impromptu projectile with just a hint of force.

The solidly carved staff hit the thief squarely in the head causing his head to snap back, and the backpack to be dropped to the ground. Harry closed the distance, whipping out his pistol and aiming it squarely at the thief on the ground. "I would suggest you leave," he said, voice frosty. With his other hand, he summoned the staff back to his hand, and stabbed it onto the ground, causing the earth to rumble. "Wouldn't want to have to send anyone to the morgue," Harry added, eyes unflinching.

As the thief ran away, fairly peeing himself in terror, he turned back to the little girl. Holstering the pistol, he picked up the backpack and passed it back to the girl. "There you go. You alright?"

[poorbastardmiko-deactivated2012]

Way too much fucking alcohol [Closed//Harry]

[poorbastardmiko-deactivated2012]

Reimu sighed. That’s how most newcomers in the Human Village reacted after hearing spellcard rules. “From what I heard, things were the same when the rules were first implemented. No one, youkai especially, wanted to follow them. It took a lot of ‘persuading’ from the strongest youkai, who happened to be on the human’s side for this one. After a few centuries, everyone got used to it. Plus, they’re not completely safe. They have enough power to incapacitate, if so needed.” If they weren’t that powerful, Reimu wouldn’t be able to exterminate youkai, since they’d probably try to run away.

“Trust me, getting hit by even one danmaku hurts like all hells.” Even through all the years of doing work, she still couldn’t fully get used to the searing pain that came after getting hit by one of those bullets.

[forthebluebeetle-blog]

Harry raised an eyebrow.

"Oh? Well I guess you said it was non-lethal, but didn't say it didn't hurt." He looked at the spell card. "Hmmm. So you ... what, store your powers into the card, and when it comes to it, you release your powers from the card and they take the form of this 'danmaku'?"

"Wait, what is a 'danmaku' to begin with? Is that like some form of a creature that the card summons, and then you do battle, and you have to break your opponents' shields or something to hit them? Cause I think I saw a show like that once." Harry was genuinely curious now. He knew that TVs didn't always show the truth, but they DID have Merlin in that King Arthur drama, and the Merlin DID exist so maybe ...

[poorbastardmiko-deactivated2012]

Way too much fucking alcohol [Closed//Harry]

[poorbastardmiko-deactivated2012]

Using danmaku out in the open would definitely be the worst. There was at least one thing that she could do, though.

“I can’t show you now. But I can tell you how they work.”

She pulled out a stray spellcard. The shrine maiden always made sure to keep a few on hand, even when a hangover was taking over her mind processes. “From what I’ve assumed, you can use whatever kind of magic at will. It doesn’t work like that in Gensokyo. Generally, a person has one kind of power. Some have the power to control things like ice and darkness, while others have more mundane powers, like the control of borders or flowers. How strong you are depends on how imaginative you can be with what you have.” Oddly enough, the ones with the mundane powers she mentioned happened to be the strongest ones in Gensokyo.

“Of course, with youkai that had the power to kill with only the blink of an eye, there had to be a way to make things fair for everyone involved. That’s where these come in.” She waved the card around. “Spellcards. It will manifest your powers into what we call danmaku. They are completely nonlethal and are used in a game. Whoever gets hit enough times or runs out of cards first loses. And the winner gets their way. It’s a very beautiful thing to watch.”

[forthebluebeetle-blog]

Harry listened to her explanation. "Huh. Cards, huh. And non-lethal games. That sounds nice," he said, idly noting that disagreements between magical folks in his part of the world was a lot more lethal.

"Actually that would be nice. I wish all my folks in my side of the world settled disputes that way. Although ..." Harry tried to imagine Mab using cards and not going out to kill someone. After about five minutes, he shook his head. "Nope. Can't imagine it. Not even possible with some of the folks I know."

He tried again, this time trying to imagine having a non-lethal fight with Nicodemus.

Harry's eyes narrowed. "... yeah, so not happening."

[dekomories-deactivated20121216]

☆ arrival. [OPEN]

Sanae looked at her new school. Her master had sent her here to observe the supernatural waves they had sensed here. She also heard that fake Mori Summer went to this school to spread rumors that she’s the real deal. Well, she certainly doesn’t think that she, the Mjörnir Hammer, is going to stop her!! She took Mabinogion out of her bag and grinned.

This was going to be the greatest trip ever. She had signed in for classes that would be useful to help her master finding the unseen horizon and to stop everyone that would get into her way. She giggled and yelled: “MJÖRNIR TORNADOOOO!!!!!!” while spinning around. Of course, she got the attention of everyone on campus. Without caring she continued jumping around.

[forthebluebeetle-blog]

Harry's eyes tracked the odd girl jumping around the campus, spinning her hair which had weights attached to the end turning them into some sort of makeshift hammer. And she was screaming something about a tornado.

She looked sane enough. I guess she's ... sane ...

He watched her jumping around the campus, swinging her hair, forcing the other students to either dodge her or get smacked in the head by her ... hammer.

... she IS sane, right ... ?

Still, it wouldn't do for her to actually hit someone with her ... hair hammer. He was about to fulfill her wish for a tornado then paused. He had promised that shrine maiden that he wouldn't use magic in open. He sighed. Oh wait she's coming this way.

Harry watched her draw close, and as she went past, he easily dodged her hair hammer, and thrust his staff into the path of her hair, causing it to get tangled around the carved wood staff and rather forcibly pulling her back.

"I don't really know what this is about, but you should really stop jumping about on the campus while swinging your hair like that," he said to the tangled up girl. "I'm Harry Dresden, security guard here.

[poorbastardmiko-deactivated2012]

Way too much fucking alcohol [Closed//Harry]

[poorbastardmiko-deactivated2012]

The shrine maiden couldn’t help but laugh along with him. “Most of our conversations end up like that, don’t they?” Her headache was finally gone, and she seemed to be in a good mood. Not that Harry offering her free food had anything to do with it. Nope. Not at all. She took the sandwich and began to munch on it. Sandwiches were something she didn’t get to eat very much in Gensokyo. Some of the village people offered them to her, but most of them sold the food at a high price. Meat was hard to get a hold of there, after all.

“Now that you’ve got me here spilling the beans and all, is there anything else you want to know?” 

[forthebluebeetle-blog]

Harry chewed his sandwich thoughtfully for a moment before swallowing.

"N...no, I don't think so. Well at least if I have anymore questions I know where to find you." He was about to take a bite then he paused. "Oh wait, I do."

"You've seen my magic. I'm curious to know what kind of magic you use." He finished taking a bite, chewed and swallowed before continuing. "See, the wizards I meet always use the same kind of magic I do. But here, at Tancho there are many different types of magic styles I've seen, so if I meet a magic user, I'm always curious to see what kind of magic they use." 

"So how 'bout it. Of course, not here, and not in the open, but I would like to see what kind of magic you use."

[poorbastardmiko-deactivated2012]

Way too much fucking alcohol [Closed//Harry]

[poorbastardmiko-deactivated2012]

“I see.” As much as Reimu wanted to scold Harry, proving her point that humans outside of Gensokyo knowing magic spelled disaster for everyone, she held her tongue. Despite her blunt honesty, seeing Harry’s face as he described these events was enough to make her watch her words.

“There hasn’t been any dangerous youkai of that magnitude in my lifetime. I heard of a story from my guardian, however. A youkai of death once found its way into Gensokyo. Its aura was enough to kill plants within a 10-meter radius in an instant, and any animal in less than an hour’s time. It loved destruction, to the point of almost wiping out the entire population, human and youkai. It was disposed of, but not without many casualties and a lot of effort.” Yukari often told her that story when she didn’t want to do her work. It was usually enough to get her back into the extermination game, especially after a long break. The gap youkai even made sure to add an extra gruesome detail every time she told it, just to convince Reimu further. “Those Outsiders you speak of… they remind me of that.”

[forthebluebeetle-blog]

"A ... youkai of death, huh ..." Harry pondered if he could ever face such a thing, then laughed at himself. He already had faced such things, and things worse than that. "I wouldn't know how to act until I faced such a thing, although I have to say I've faced worse." Harry shook his head, knowing it was all due to his friends and sheer blind luck that he had survived all of those encounters.

"Well, this conversation took a turn for the morbid, didn't it?" he said laughingly, leaning back against the bench he was on. "Although I guess I was partly responsible."  He pulled out box and opened it, revealing two sandwiches. He choose one and took a bite out of it, offering the other to Reimu.

[poorbastardmiko-deactivated2012]

Way too much fucking alcohol [Closed//Harry]

[poorbastardmiko-deactivated2012]

“…Do you expect me to know who those people are?” Because Reimu had never heard of any of them. She didn’t know the outside world still had vampire hunters. Or vampires, for that matter. The only vampires she knew were the Scarlet sisters. “Either way, that’s not how it works in Gensokyo. Youkai and humans are born at odds. Youkai eat humans, and humans hunt youkai. That’s how things work. There’s no such thing as a youkai-hunting youkai. They get into fights, but they don’t hunt each other like humans do.” If such a thing happened, balance would get fucked up. That was a bad thing. 

This was the first time Reimu had ever been called inhuman (excluding those times that people exaggerated and said her power wasn’t that of a human’s. That was silly.). A strange feeling surged up within her. “I’m human.” she said bluntly. “Maybe to the outside world’s standards, I don’t seem like it. But I am truly and completely human.” Those that weren’t human, were youkai, and Reimu was not a youkai.

Outsiders… Reimu would keep them in mind. From Harry’s description, they seemed to be worse than Yuuka, and she was pretty much the equivalent of an eldritch abomination in the form of a woman. “These outsider things… How do they get in here?”

[forthebluebeetle-blog]

Harry's face darkened at her question.

"They're summoned. Only humans can summon them in." The Black Council again entered his mind, those crazy psychos whose only concern was for power. ... well, most of them anyway. "There's no other way for Outsiders to entire our world. Every wizard knows the Laws of Magic; Thou shalt not seek beyond the Outer Gates, cause if you do the Wardens will be at your doorstep with sword in hand to permanently remove your head. And that's the only Law no one's ever argued about because Outsiders are Bad News." He paused. "But still, people summon them." Harry fell silent, the memories of the burned out house, and He-Who-Walks-Behind. Summoned by the very man he had viewed as his father, Harry had banish the Walker after a fierce battle.

"Other than humans summoning them, there's absolutely no other way for Outsiders to get in," Harry said suddenly. "Absolutely none." The battlefields of the Outer Gates flashed into his mind; the millions if not billions of Unseelie Fae fighting to prevent them from flooding in.

[poorbastardmiko-deactivated2012]

Way too much fucking alcohol [Closed//Harry]

[poorbastardmiko-deactivated2012]

…Did she not look human? The man had his reasons for doubting, of course. Not every youkai Reimu knew had obvious tells to their species. Still, she had always been considered a human, so being mistaken for one was odd, to say the least.

“If I wasn’t a human, do you think I would go about exterminating youkai?” That meant yes, she was a human.

“Burning seems a bit excessive.” And by that, she meant too flashy. Of course, this was coming from the same person whose family created flashy light battles to decide everything. “Your youkai seem to be a lot more dangerous than ours. At least the ones in Gensokyo don’t hurt things just by being near them.”

[forthebluebeetle-blog]

Harry shrugged. "Why can't you go about exterminating 'youkai' if you're not one of them. Blade hunts vampires, and he's technically a vampire himself. Also Sith are technically Jedi, but they both hate each other enough to cauterize each other on sight."

"And anyway. If you can use magic, same as I can, we aren't technically human anymore. We're like. X-Men to them, you know. Meta-humans. Look like humans, act like humans, but not truly human."

Harry shook his head when she mentioned burning was excessive. "That was a metaphor. Though, burning them is far from excessive. Outsiders are ... wrong. Just wrong. If your mind is weak, you could be driven insane just from seeing then. They're  unnatural and evil, and utterly alien. They could set a plan in action that takes them centuries to complete, and they would be perfectly fine with it."

[marblemagic-deactivated20130219]

[Open]

┌It was lonely. The school days were filled with boredom, and the girl had spent most of her free time in the dorm, at least the time that wasn’t spent in class or doing her work. Even now she would have rather been in her room. But the dorm had been so loud, so here she sat in the library. A book set open in front of her. Though her eyes weren’t staring at it. Instead her gaze fixed on the marbles that sat unmoving on the table beside the book.

Time and again Anna had come up empty handed in her search. However she attributed it to possibly being tired or distracted. If she had really been searching she was sure she would have a chance to find the boy… Perhaps. A small sigh escaped her lips as she put the marbles into her pocket. Closing the heavy book she lifted it. Struggling to find the spot she had originally pulled it from.

Reaching the shelves of books she clung the book to her chest, one hand reaching up to run over the spines of those that were in front of her. Half trying to find the gap left from her book, and half in curiosity at what was written behind the covers of each one. How she wished she had time to read them all.

Reaching a hand up Anna lifted the large book trying to fit it into its slot on a shelf that was almost too high for her to reach. Standing on her tippy toes she strained to get it in place. Her attempt was foiled quickly when she found herself letting out a loud yelp, falling to the ground, hands on her head where the book had fallen on her.┘

[forthebluebeetle-blog]

Harry's head perked up at the sound of a yelp and something falling to the floor. It sounded like it had come from a nearby aisle. He replaced the book on plants back up on the shelf and went hunting for the source of the noise. 

He found it shortly after, a young, silver haired girl rubbing her head, clearly in pain, and a rather heavy book on the floor next to her. He strode towards her, kneeling beside the bruised girl. "Are you okay?" Harry asked. He took out his handkerchief and laid it on his right hand. He placed his left over it, and softly murmured, "Infriga."

A small, irregularly shaped block of ice formed, and Harry wrapped it in the handkerchief. "Here, put this on the bruise," he said, handing her the wrapped up ice. He picked up the book, and replaced it on the shelf, then looked down at the girl. "I'm Harry Dresden, security guard at Tancho. Do you need to go to the infirmary?"