Elementalist's Best Friend

Keen

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Nov 23, 2016
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Smokey was hopping from one claw to the other after knocking on the front of Jude's door. They did not expect to be invited at all. Honestly, they had a sneaking suspicion that their relationship with Jude wasn't true friendship, just really good acquaintances. Perhaps just a little of Jude feeling like he needed to reel Smokey in to keep them from trouble for Roa's sake.

But he invited them to his new apartment today! So that meant something. Maybe that aura was really paying off. Or the therapy. Or the fact that they were slowly cutting out all the toxic people in their life. It was certainly one of those things.


 

Romi

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The aura definitely wasn't helping, because by that point Jude was good and immune. Being around Basilio, let alone Alma and Iggy had fully deadened his body's reaction to auras. Like being immunized, only with a lot more variety.

Jude popped his head out the front of his apartment, spotting Smokey and immediately stepping back, waving them inside.

"Come in. It's not much, especially compared to the last place, but it's home."

The apartment was not large by any metric. Modest would be a kind term for it, because it was really just intended for Jude and Basilio. The entrance opened up to a living room that became a kitchen farther on, and to the side were two bedrooms and a bathroom.

It was a far cry from either house Jude had lived in before.

"My dad's at work," Jude said, closing the door behind them before heading towards one of the bedroom doors. "Thanks for coming over. I'm just working on a thing and could use your help."
 

Keen

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Smokey honestly looked curious about his apartment as they were shown through. "It's cozy. I'm not used to hou—er, places this small." Any place that wasn't made to accommodate at least twenty people in the same room, some who may be around 15 feet tall, was a new sight to Smokey still.

Noticing they were being led to a room (probably his bedroom or gameroom?), they gave him a smirk and wiggled their eyebrows. "Oh, Angelo, what do you need help with? I'm sure I could fix all of your problems," they responded with a jokingly flirty tone.
 

Romi

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Yep, he'd pretty much expecting the flirting, and simply carried on as if it... well, as if it hadn't happened. It was just a non-factor to him. Smokey did it all the time, and it never went anywhere, and Smokey more or less just continued as they always had. The one time he'd tried to respond seriously, it had just thrown them off.

"I'd appreciate it if you didn't mention this to anyone," Jude said, careful with his wording to avoid any unfortunate consequences.

His room was fairly bare. There was a bookshelf, half empty. A nightstand. A bed. The only particularly interesting things were a series of statues - glass busts of DeadManSwitch and Edmund Eldritch at eye level, and smaller ones of Teagan Queen, Armorer, Finch, and We The People a bit below that. If Smokey craned, they might see another large one of his father on the top shelf, tucked mostly out of sight.

There were also, set out on the floor, no less than ten metal disks about the size of a CD, laid out in a row.
 

Keen

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Smokey pretty much expected to be ignored. At this point, the flirting was just their version of small talk until they actually had a topic to latch onto.

"Sure thing. I'm just happy you trusted me enough to help you with whatever."

Inside, Smokey indulged themself and started looking through his room. Nothing invasive, just scanning over what he had on his bookshelf, looking at his statuettes (which they were fairly certain were people from his world, considering they recognized Finch from school... unless Jude was some kind of stalker, which they doubted), and finally, looking over the metal disks on the floor.

They squatted down to get a better view of them, then waited expectedly for Jude's explanation. Jude didn't seem like the messy type to leave things on the floor, nor the type to have ten disks laid neatly in a row for no reason. There was something to this.
 

Romi

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"I've been learning enchanting," Jude said, starting to explain. "Or artificing. They're effectively the same thing, with no standard terminology. Either way, imbuing magical effects into objects. I've been training under a mentor, but I've also been working on stuff in my off time. This is my big project right now."

Jude moved over, sitting down cross legged beside the disks before reaching out, tapping his fingers along them one by one.

"I've been trying to enchant these to collect smoke, but it takes a fair amount of... tweaking. 'Smoke' is kind of nebulous, after all. But I figure at least one of these will be correct, so if you breath smoke on each, I should get a better idea of which ones are working well. Not a lot. Just like... a little bit."
 

Keen

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Smokey gave Jude the biggest smile. They knew he was practicing, but now they got to help! It took everything within them to force down a fit of giggles and fidgeting. They were a man on a mission and had to focus.

"Yes! I'd love to help." And almost immediately, they went to blow smoke on the first disk, then stopped and sucked it back in. "Uh, tell me when. I'm not sure if you need to activate something first. Why collecting smoke anyways?"
 

Romi

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"It's a gift," Jude said. "For my dad. It helps relax his body when he smokes, but we don't have a balcony and it's a major walk down. If I can make a smoke catcher, that'd be ideal for him. It'd let him smoke inside without ruining the security deposit... or making our clothes smell."

He tapped a metal disk.

"These are just proof of concepts for the magic. You can start whenever. I'll be taking mental notes."
 

Keen

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"Great, great. I can impress two people at once. My payment? If this works and your dad's happy about it, you gotta tell him I helped out too."

Smokey considered that to be a basic enough thing that Jude wouldn't reject is, so without missing a beat, they went right for it. They took a deep breath in, then puffed some air at each disk. Afterward, they moved back to see what would happen.
 

Romi

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Jude snorted at the 'request', waving his hand. "I'll mention it," Jude said. "Because if it works, he'll definitely ask how I managed to do it. I haven't told him much about my artificing practice, so this'll come mostly out of the blue."

The disks proved an absolute mix of results. Some did nothing at all. Some attracted the smoke. Some attracted the smoke too well, speeding to the disk and starting to pull smoke from the other areas even after they'd settled. Jude reached down, scooting two away from the others - the best of the lot.

"Can you test again on these two?"
 
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