Quid agis hic ...

Ted grins sheepishly, his fingers drumming idly against the sides of his jaw..

"Yeaaahh. It’s, uh.. pretty hard, trying to keep everything neat AND stop your head from falling off at the same time. Go figure."

He sets his head on the counter and starts to gather up the dishes and depositing them into the sink.

"And I’m sure you’ll think of something soon. I mean, you’re a great sorcerer, yeah. But you’re super smart, Necro. I believe in you."

"I really need to help you with that... we haven't done much testing on that neck-adhesive spell I came up with. Maybe I can come up with a way to make the sticking-spell stronger by sacrificing the glamor effect... you don't really need it around the house..."

Necro hummed to himself, calculations and spell formulas whizzing through his head, before he remembered with a start.

"Well, I'll get to that AFTER I figure out how to get my magic back." He grimaced, squinching up his face grumpily before letting it go.

At Ted's praise, his whole face lightened a few notches, the bags under his eyes seeming to fade slightly with the expression.

"Thanks, Ted. Here, I'll wash dishes and you take a wet cloth and go about cleaning what you can reach. Whatever you can't, Isabella can probably help you with. Then we can get things done much faster."

And with that, the three of them set out cleaning up the kitchen, the mood a bit lighter than before.

#headlessted #((end))

Ted drums his fingers against his chin.

"Well, it's only fair.. I mean, I was a huge snot when we uh.. first met. So it's okay, honest."

He plops himself into the chair across from Necro, gnawing on the lollipop thoughtfully.

"I guess you can just go back to the older stuff, though, right? That doesn't need magic."

"Mmnh... I guess I'll have to, but most of it awfully basic. I mean, sure you can make some paper seals but the most they can keep out is the odd poltergeist, not a god-level demon."

He picks up his fork and taps it against his plate a few times, frowning unhappily.

"Well, I guess there's not much we - or, I - can do about this at the moment. Pouting won't solve anything. I need to figure out how to get my magic back from that beast any way I can, come hell or high water. Though I hope it doesn't come to the hell part." He said, grabbing his plate and the cake still in it's tin, walking over to the counter.

"Let's clean up, shall we? You made quite the spectacular mess here baking, didn't you? It's quite... impressive."

Ted watches this in amazement. He's never seen Necro so.. emotional. He leans over to Isabella and whispers:

"Wow, tantrum much."

Necro glared at Ted with his cheeks full of cake. "I heard that." he said around his food, and got up to get himself a glass of milk, chugging it straight away to chase down the cake.

By the time he had angrily devoured most of his slice of cake, he had calmed down a bit, his eating slowing to a more normal pace.

"...sorry I'm being such a snot over this, Ted. I'm just... uncomfortable and frustrated. And I feel useless and helpless without my magic. I mean, you see how much I use it. Literally every single day.... ugh. I ate that cake too fast." He grumbled, leaning back in the chair and tilting his head back.

The corners of Ted's mouth twitched in an attempt to smile. His guardian, Necro, vastly powerful and knowledgable in many branches of arcanum, was acting a bit like a child whose toy was taken away.

"Well.. at least your head's still attached, right?"

Necro groaned and rubbed his face, glaring at the now-useless tattoos on his palms.

"Yeah... yeah. it's just... I've had mastery over magic for I don't even know HOW long now, and I... can't even do something as simple as summoning a small object anymore?!"

Necro growled and stood up, stomping over to the cupboards and pulling out a plate and eventually a fork and knife, slamming them down on the table and helping himself to a large slice of cake.

Which he promptly started munching on angrily.

The boy's death-glazed eyes lit up immediately. He hadn't had one of those in awhile. Ted nods eagerly, or, the closest he can manage to nodding, at least. He glances over at the countertop at Isabella.

"..Izzy can have one too, right?"

Necro looked over at Izzy and couldn't help but laugh - she had put on her biggest puppy-eyes a bird could make.

"Alright, alright, she can have one too." Necro automatically reached out and waves his hand in the air to summon the key - but nothing happened.

He looked at his hand confused for a second or two, before he remembered and his expression fell.

"...One second, sorry..." He said as he trudged past them and up the stairs, returning after a few minutes with the key to the locked jar.

"I forgot..." He said as he unlocked the jar, and took out two lollipops, one for Ted and one for Isabella. He sighed depely as he put the lid back on the jar, and placed it on the table.

"It's gonna take me a while to get used to having no magic... damn! Half of my magic supplies are kept in my cloak of holding spell... and I can't get to them! They're trapped till I get my magic back!" He cursed, frowning and sitting down in the chair with a thump.

Ted only grins.

"Nuh-uh. You do it; this is your cake. I can't eat it. And neither can Izzy."

Ted steps back towards the counter, making it clear that he wasn't going to touch it.

"I mean, it was supposed to be a pick-me up of sorts, but I guess that's kinda moot considering what happened.."

Necro looked from Ted, to the cake, then to Ted again.

He then shrugged, and scooped out most of the rest of the icing onto the cake, slathering it on messily.

"I guess it doesn't have to be pretty then, heh..." He chuckled lightly, making sure the icing was in the corners. When he was done, the cake looked... rather sloppy. But it still looked like it tasted good.

He stuck the knife back in the tin, placing both on the table.

"Mmh... it's alright. We'll figure something out. Until then... I guess I'll enjoy my cake." He said, smiling up at Ted with tired eyes.

He then walked over to the fridge and grabbed the locked jar of lollipops off of the top of it.

"You may not be able to share my cake, but you can at least enjoy a snack with me, right?"

"Uh.. Yeah, I think you bought some. It's up on the top shelf."

Ted gestures to the uppermost cabinet, obviously out of his reach.

"I can't get it, though."

Necro stood up and reached into the cabinet, rustling around till he found the tin.

He then grabbed a butter knife out of the cutlery drawer, bringing both over to the table where the cake was, while Ted's body took his head back from Isabella.

"So... uh. The cake looks good. You did a good job." Necro said, opening the icing tin and scooping out a bunch of it with the knife. He plopped it down in the middle of the cake, smearing it around a bit before stopping.

"Uh... do you want to do it? You made the cake..."

Ted shifts uncomfortably from foot to foot, hugging his head close to his chest, his face a bit crestfallen.

"Oh. Right, those. Mm.."

The oven behind them dings, and Ted rushes to pull out the cake before it burns, and sets it on the table to cool. The edges look a bit rough, but the inner part looks edible enough.

"I don’t really know what they meant either; or at least I don’t think I do. I might have an idea, but I’m not sure yet. You should eat something, in the meantime."

Necro slumps against the back of the chair and watched as Ted placed his head on the counter, carefully taking the cake out of the oven with oven mitts.

The cake did look alright, a bit dark around the edges but other than that it looked good. He wiped his hands on his pants, looking up at Isabella who was happily watching Ted, helping him by making sure his head was safe and wouldn't roll off the counter top with her wings.

He sighed again, rubbing his face agitatedly before standing up and walking over to Ted's head, both of them watching his body handle the cake.

"...is there any icing?"

Ted stares at his guardian in silence for a moment, unsure of how to react or respond. Satan was here? The Satan? It seemed almost unreal. Like a really bad prank. But Necro’s never been one to crack a joke, so..

The decapitated boy goes over to the older man and gently pries his hands away from his hair.

"Okay.. well, first things first: don’t make yourself go bald. You really don’t need that. Secondly.. I don’t think you’re.. uh.. totally powerless. I mean, you have like, a zillion charms and wards stocked up, right? Ones that don’t need magic to be activated?”

Necro lets Ted pull his hands away, and looks up at him with harrowed eyes.

"N...no, I mean... yeah, I have some of those. A-and they'll do in a pinch, but... I'm worried about the stronger spells on the edge of the property... t-the larger ones need to be reset every so often because they wear away over time... and I don't know how long I'm going to be without my magic..."

He sat up, sniffling and wiping at his nose with his thumb. "S-satan said that... 'My powers are theirs until I can learn to behave nicely' or something like that... and I have no idea what they meant."

decapita-ted:

You don’t seem very alright..

..But okay. I trust you.

Necro's chest clenched, and his arm around Isabella squeezed tighter till she squawked in discomfort. He jumped, letting her go suddenly and she flapped over to the nearby kitchen counter, motioning with her head towards Ted.

Urging him to tell Ted the truth.

Necro sighed heavily, the end note of it sounding almost like a sob, and shuffled forward and past Ted till he could tug out a rickety chair to slump into. He leaned forward and ran his fingers through his hair, trying to steady his breathing so he could talk.

"N-no, Ted, I'm sorry but... I'm n-not okay. We're not okay."

"I just - Satan... Satan was here, and she - it took my magic away. I'm powerless, a-and there's not a damn thing I can do about it!" He squeezed out, fingers fisting and tugging at his hair anxiously.