Tyrus + Harriet: Dropping By

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Who: Harriet, Tyrus (as Travis)
When: Monday the 15th
Where: The Nenakret
Before/After: N/A
Warnings: TBD

Pretending to be Travis just got much more complicated. Once he realized that the worlds merged, Tyrus had to deal with the fact that he could suddenly make contact with the people in the Nenakret. Sunday afternoon, he took a warp there, and promptly went about checking up on old business contacts, friends, and generally making certain that his life as Tyrus hadn't fallen apart entirely. He went back to Fall City -- maybe he should have thought of it as Bastan, now? -- though, deciding it was better to keep living there as Travis for now.

Which meant he had to get in touch with people that Travis hadn't seen in awhile. Which meant going back to the Nenakret the next day, but this time in Earth clothes, with the brown contacts in, and acting stunned and amazed at everything he saw. Life could be confusing.

Thankfully, he he actually liked Harriet. It would be fun enough to be worth the confusing identity switching, he suspected, even if their last conversation had left him disquieted. When he got to the palace -- it seemed like where she should be -- he found a spellsword guard. It was a newer one; one he had never seen before, which seemed like the best bet. He mentioned that Travis Handley was here to see the Khshathra and she knew what it was about.

Hopefully, he thought, this worked. He had done a daring escape from the palace once before, but it was roleplayed. Somehow, he suspected the real thing would be much harder. It bothered him that he had become paranoid a day after the merge, but it was a good habit.

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"Politics," he sighed. That was even a genuine feeling; the politics in Bohun Upas had annoyed him to no small end. He hesitated a moment, before he took a seat on one of the benches. He laced his fingers together and looked at her thoughtfully. "I think I'd like the mad science part more, too."

[suddenly_science]

"It's a shame that's the only thing I got an automatic download of," Harriet said. Duncan's speeches be damned, she didn't see why she couldn't magically understand statecraft if she could be made to magically understand alchemy.

Maybe she should try to invent a way to transfer information between brains.

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He looked confused for a second, before he realized what she meant. The brain came with nothing about being the Sharifa. He frowned, before he nodded at Harriet. He could empathize a little with that.

"I think it's because politics are about people, y'know?" he asked. "They're fuckin' hard. There's no formulas and crap, and everyone keeps everything hidden. I like the science-y stuff better. I don't gotta figure out what everyone else is thinking."

[suddenly_science]

She gave him a funny look.

"Do you seriously just want to be an alchemist right now, dude? I can make you an alchemist."

He seemed to have been dropping hints furiously, or... something.

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"I meant computer science!" Tyrus insisted, awkwardly.

[suddenly_science]

"...Oh."

She believed it. But now she was just confused over what his deal was. SOMETHING was weird.

"But I could, you know."

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"Let me think on it," he said. "I might want to become a mage, too."

Maybe that was best. He sighed -- but try as he might, he couldn't perfectly hide everything, and he looked awkward at it. He certainly was not telling her everything.

But, really, how could Tyrus?

[suddenly_science]

"Boo, mages," Harriet said. She could not help but feel in competition with the other guild leaders when it came to recruiting friends.

Probably because give or take a Mal, her friends had all turned up their noses at alchemy EVEN WHEN IT WAS THE ONLY SUPERPOWER SET READILY AVAILABLE, COME ON YOU GUYS.

Sigh!

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"Aw, come on," Tyrus said with the sort of grin that said he was not remotely serious at the moment. He shrugged his shoulders.

"It's the only class where you can chill out in your bathrobe 24/7 and pretend that it's respectable!"

[suddenly_science]

"That isn't even the cool part of being a mage! If you go off and become one, you have to at least appreciate the ABILITY TO USE MAGIC. ...In my place..."

She hung her head theatrically.

Using mana to activate alchemical systems was just NOT the same thing (she supposed).

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"There, there, your Khshathraness," Tyrus said. He got a small kick out of being able to use a very informal version of his national leader's proper form of address.

"It does make me crazy." He grinned, sheepishly, and shrugged again. He spread his hands out wide, in a 'what can you do?' sort of motion. "I don't think I need to get more crazy. But I should think on it, right?"

[suddenly_science]

"Oh, right, that's important." She always forgot about the mage-crazy.

"You should look after your brain."

Harriet certainly planned on looking after hers.

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"Can't live without them!" he said with a smile. He looked around again, before he looked back at her. "It's pretty awesome, getting to see this, though. It does look like a lot of fun."

Except if he let her make him an alchemist, she would probably realize he already was one. Damn, damn, damn.

"Do you like being here? I mean--you know, now that the war's over, living in the Nenakret and all."

[suddenly_science]

"I keep thinking it'll wrap up and I'll go back to living at home at some point, so that part is awkward," Harriet said. "Other than that it's a blast. And I can actually visit home again, now..."

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"Yeah..." He trailed off with that, genuine reflection in his voice. "No going back, now, huh?" He looked up at her and grinned. "You'll get used to it. Plus, now you got rank. You can just do something crazy, look at someone, and go, 'DIPLOMATIC IMMUNITY.'"

He snapped his fingers for emphasis.

"Bam!" he declared. "You're off scot free. It seriously works like that."

[suddenly_science]

"It's good to be the science queen," Harriet said.

Being the boss was fuckin' confusing, though.

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He laughed aloud at that. It probably was good to be the science queen. And besides, he recognized that reference! It was one of the movies Travis had, that he watched, and that he actually liked.

"You've seen that old movie?" he asked. "Or did that one just get kinda rooted in pop culture?"

[suddenly_science]

"Pop culture, I think. What movie's it from?"

Harriet wasn't very well versed in media, unless you counted anime.

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"History of the World, Part I," Tyrus said. "It's great. You got a television or movie thingy in here? We should watch it if you haven't seen it. It's got singing Spanish Inquisitors."

[suddenly_science]

"I think my laptop is around here, somewhere," Harriet said.

Did she have time for a movie? Well. Maybe...

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"There we go, then!" Tyrus said. He grinned. "If you want to. I know you might be busy and it's not anime at all."

[suddenly_science]

"That's all right," Harriet said, casting a glance around at her lab full of bugs, experiments, and all else.

"My interests have expanded a bit in recent months."

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"It's like going to college, but cooler," Tyrus said. "Learn new things, see new things, get awesome experiences, but there's more mad science and magical powers involved."

[suddenly_science]

"Yup, pretty much," Harriet said.

It wasn't the first time she'd had that thought.

"And even after you learn everything, you can never go home again."

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Tyrus laughed at that. It came easy enough.

"But at least you make a bunch of cool new friends!"