awashlogs | Catch All for May!

[ If he needs help lighting the fire (which he probably doesn't), BUT IF HE DOES, she can make a spark for him to ignite it. Either way-- ]

Hm, do you think that the we have to mince these other ingredients? [ OH NO, she's thinking of it like it's some sort of actual recipe. ] Or simply throw them all in there?

And how much blood would it take? Maybe only a pinprick.

[He's a very stupid, annoying boy, so as much as it would be beneficial for him to ask others for help for once in his life, he refuses on principle. And maybe because he's spent ten years being trained to be self-sufficient by mother dearest.

From within the confines of the tailored and altered town clothes, he pulls out a sliver of flint. The ignition is the arrowhead dagger he removes from one of his boots. It only takes two strikes.]

Theoretically? A body's worth. [But they can't very well murder someone for one and a half gallons of blood even if people are resurrected.] Using a creature of lesser intellect would likely ruin the experiment, if we're to go on baseless hearsay legends. I'll donate. [This doesn't sound like it bothers him in the slightest???]

The other components should probably be fine enough to melt or dissolve at a high temperature. So: water, fire, our chosen ingredients, and blood. [For a moment, he's thoughtful.] The elements... We're missing earth and air.

For the earth we can just use soil, and for the air we can simply blow on it, can't we?

[ Seems simple enough, but she's going to go ahead and throw the beehive husk in whole, letting it cook. And some dirt. ] But hold on, you can't expect me to be okay with you donating a significant amount of blood, even to something like this. I'll give a little, too.

[ She can't give a lot because... her skin and outer appearance pretty much just mimics flesh. Deeper within, she's just made of energy; it's not like she has gallons of blood within her like a regular human. ]

[The "blow on it" earns Pyra a Look from Damian. He is most certainly not going to be blowing into a boiling cauldron like some kind of child.]

I don't intend to give enough to cause me harm. More than just a pinprick.

[Satisfied by the state of the fire, he stands back up to give it time to burn down to mostly embers.] We'll concern ourselves with the blood last. We need water and any more ingredients you want to put in. Get them. Give me the beehive, and I'll mince it. [This is his way to cutting the blood donation convo short so that she won't argue with him about participating.

Because he isn't going to let her.]

[ And she readily hands him the beehive husk. ]

I know of a river not too far from here, I think.... [ From her last excursion into the woods! Cheerily, she steps in its direction. ] I won't be long, alright?

[ She returns first with the water. As for two other ingredients...

She finds the bone metal in a cave that she had previously been held captive in by a dragon two months ago. A metallic-type dragon, in fact! And she and her friend had slain it to free themselves. She's taken a piece of its metallic bones to use. The third ingredient she finds is a mutated, glowing mushroom.

Returning with both a piece of a metal dragon tarsal and a glowing mushroom in hand, she shows them happily to him... Although, because she had to do that mini-excursion through the cursed trees, she does look a little more tired than usual. ] Alright, do you think these two things will do?

Don't wander far.

[The only reason he's less worried is because she hefted up the pews that day. Metahumans. Sheesh.

When the water comes back, he takes it for the cauldron, hopefully getting it started with heating and boiling. For now, he doesn't seem to be doing anything outrageous, only watching over the fire like a sentinel to keep it in check. She leaves him doing as much again.

But when she comes back, he has been naughty. The length of his forearm from elbow to wrist is in the completing stages of being wrapped by the cloth belt, leaving his folded shirt open and hanging. He has way too many defined muscles for a pretty much fourteen year old boy!! He hadn't been kidding when he said "training" as an answer to what he enjoys doing.

Without hesitation or shame, he glances over at her as he tucks the end of the belt wrapping securely into the rest with two fingers. The arrowhead dagger is perched on a rock by the cauldron, but there's no blood on it...

Both eyes flick back and forth between what's in her hand.] We don't have much option. We'll use them. Their "magically-inclined" properties could aid in the creation of the stone.

[ She leaves him for one second-- okay, no not one second, but! Still! Boys. ] Damian!

[ NOPE NOPE forget the ingredients, she's just going to set them on the ground. Instead she's marching right over to him, and-- if she may-- she'll be reaching for his bandaged arm. ] What... what happened? Are you alright? [ Don't tell her that he made a cut all the way up his arm!!

...She doesn't think that he is that foolish, but it could also have been a mistake. Also, when it looks like someone is hurt, she always wants to help! ]

[Even when he prepares himself for this very reaction, he is always surprised by the compassion of others. Hecking do-gooders. As if he isn't secretly one also.

She reaches out, and his free hand snaps up to grasp her firmly by the wrist. There's practice in it, technique, and he has more of a handle than a lot would give him credit for.] I'm fine. Your concern is wasted.

We have our blood donation. [Like this excuses it! But he does release her wrist.] The water is ready. Let's add in the other ingredients.

[ She takes back her wrist into her hand, surprised by how quickly he had grasped it and stopped her. Training, indeed. ] Ah, I'm sorry... I just can't help but be concerned for you.

You'll let me know if you're not fine, right? [ Pinprick he said but that's a pretty hefty looking bandage!

As she asks this, she begins heating up the metal bone, it glows a hot red in her hands before melting between her fingers into the cauldron. As for the mushroom, she'll hand it to him to prepare in the meantime. ]

Sure. [It's sassy, but not exceedingly rude.] If I'm not fine, you'll know. The only time you should be worried about my well-being is if I'm unconscious. [His overconfidence is something he's........ working on.

Without shame or modesty, he stands in the exact spot without moving, watching her heat the bone and melt it into the cauldron. Hm. It's difficult to tell what he's thinking, but his lips do twist thinly at the bottom of his face.

For a long few seconds, he doesn't do anything, and then finally, he reaches out to take the offered mushroom.] If I request you list your known abilities, your answer will be "no," won't it? [The arrowhead wasn't suspicious; the edge isn't the right sharpness for flesh cutting.

What he takes out of the hem of his pants, however, is definitely sharp and definitely not Chroma. A black palm-sized--knife? But the edges are sharp all around by the way he handles it as if he's familiar with it. Shaped like a bat. A throwing weapon maybe. Which he uses to cut the mushroom between his fingers over the cauldron.]

[ She wants to say more about his suggestion that she should only be worried if he's KO'd! But he's already moved on....

Ah, actually, maybe she can work with this. ] I'll tell you more about my abilities.... [ She leans forward, brushing off her palms over the cauldron. The last of the molten metal sizzles into the pot, mixing in with the other ingredients. ] ...if you promise to let me know when you're not fine. Before you're unconscious, that is.

[ Hah, take that. ]

[His face very quickly goes deadpan. He isn't a tall ashamed to give her a full-on deadpan stare! For longer than ten seconds!

Just because he's Batman's son, trying his damndest to do the Right Thing, doesn't mean he isn't a brat. So:] Fine. [It's terribly easy to agree he will, only to turn around and not do it.

He watches her dust off her hand as he returns the batarang to its hiding place.]

I'll tell you.

[ She smiles smiles in response to his dead-pan stare, pleased with this outcome. ]

Good deal.

[ As the contents of the cauldron begin to simmer, Pyra explains: ] Most worlds, including mine, are made up of energy and matter. We have the traditional "elements" like fire, water, air, earth, darkness, and so forth that people had originally categorized, but these are all made up of other elements-- the elements that humans have discovered based on the amount of protons in each atom. And then, broken down, those particles are made up of elementary particles, and even beyond that.

We call the combined matrix of all of these elements, of that matter-energy state that makes up the world... ether.

My fire isn't... the traditional fire-element that those in my world can produce. [ She lifts up a hand, generating a small flame. ] It's derived ether, [ Even if ether does make up fire, because, energy!! ] tempered down to look and behave like normal fire. [ It can't be put out with water, for instance, it doesn't require anything to burn and is smokeless, but it can generate enough heat on its own to light things on actual fire.

...She's not going to tell him what she is, but she feels like this is enough to give him food for thought. ]

[When she begins her explanation, Damian's demeanor goes from disinterested verging on bored to immediately honed. It's clear he's a sponge, and he's always been a sponge. Information is absorbed and quickly dispersed into organized, ponderous thought.

And he doesn't look lost. Even being told about something he hasn't heard before, the words he understands, or can understand. The comprehension is easy for him, and he seems to accept them despite how fantastical they sound. Almost as if it's familiar, hearing something so wild.]

So you're able to physically articulate ether? Interesting. [His eyes flick to the flame, watching it.] I'm assuming the properties are variant from the "traditional fire-element" of others.

Which makes you an outlier. You're different.

[ A pause, and her smile seems a little more secretive now, even if she's basically telling him much, much more than she's told anyone else about her powers.

She is also, however, genuinely pleased that someone does seem interested in them-- and not just because they seem fantastical or magical, but because there is a refined explanation behind it, something that people have studied. The way humans have come up with words for it all, the way humans have discovered it all, the particles, the waves, the forces-- it's astounding. Most people here are form some world where their societies do not have such a refined study dedicated to why the things are the way they are. There are schools for magic, for trade and its utilization, apparently, but no schools for discovering why "magic" works in its strange way in their worlds, or what are the final details behind its force.

Finding another who seems to understand what she's saying makes her... happy. ] That's right.

Those in my world that can manipulate fire, their fire can be put out by water. Mine can't. [ She controls it as she wills it. But usually just a spark is enough to set things on actual fire, and that's enough for her. It also helps that most don't dare come too close to her flames. ]

Of course, mine isn't pure ether, either. Mine's... [ She searches for a word. ] Imperfect-- it's wasteful. It gives off heat, a natural force we find every day in the world, just a measurement of the quickness, the velocity of the molecules and atoms it disturbs in its vicinity.

I'm "hot" too, since I can't contain my energy within. It bleeds from me, exiting into the world as warmth. [ Then with a smile, she extends a hand for him, if he would like to feel her once more. ] Here, feel. [ And if he does take her hand, he will notice that her temperature is definitely not that of a normal human. Not uncomfortably hot, but not just "warm" either. ]

[His eyes lower to the extended hand, but he doesn't move at all, hesitating momentarily. It isn't he's scared of her or the fact she's hot. He isn't embarrassed. It's just... touching anyone is an intimacy he never wants to afford himself.

It's just easier to be distant.

Finally, slowly, he reaches out and takes her hand. True, she feels exceedingly feverish.] It isn't wasteful. Your body is converting energy into heat. We simply haven't calculated how best to harness it for other uses.

A difficult endeavour considering we're trapped in something akin to the fourteenth century. [He releases her hand, drawing back.] I suppose, at the basis of it, the expended heat is wasteful; however, there isn't much we can do about it.

Is that all? You have metahuman strength, and you can manipulate ether?

[ That he takes a moment to reach for her hand doesn't go unnoticed, but it's his words that garner more of her attention.

"We simply haven't calculated how best to harness it for other uses..." Like, what, she should be a heater for someone's bath?

She keeps this joke to herself. ] Those are the basis of my abilities, yes.. but do you really want to know what, I think, are my strongest abilities?

[ She places her hand upon the lid of the cauldron once more, leaning over. Dropping her voice a bit theatrically, she tells him: ] It's when I work with others. [ She smiles at him. ]

I can augment your abilities, too. Through teamwork. [ He can be sure she’s saying this pointedly because she’s already picked up on him working alone too much. Like the church. And him giving his blood while she wasn’t there! ]

[If he could look at the camera like he's on The Office, he would.

As soon as she says what she does, he knows it's meant for him. As expected, he makes a face about it, something indignant and dismissive.] I'm fully aware of how mutual collaboration works.

My credentials aren't any of your business; however, for the sake of proving my end of the conversation: I lead a team of five in my own world, [This is his resume for Teen Titan leader.] plus have a business relationship with a partner. [And this is how he says, "my friend, Jon, and I are superhero buddies" because he's emotionally constipated.]

But teamwork isn't always necessary. When you're powerful, it's more efficient to proceed on your own. Otherwise, the probability of collateral damage increases exponentially.

[Ah, Bats. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree. He is literally helping someone right now!! His attention returns to the cauldron and its lid, and then he glances at her expectantly.]

You must fit in right at home here.

I don't mind it here, that's true.

[ It's safer here, she knows. Safer for her own world... and quite safer, since she actually doesn't have all of her power here, her grand artifices, her privilege to the destroy the world... or, at the behest of her Father, to help rebuild it. ]

In fact, "home" is what I'd call it literally, too. Like a second home because of the people here.

[ Aaand she leans up, continuing to stir the cauldron. ]

And you? You've been here a long time.

[For a second, he makes a face, though this one isn't quite as placable as the others he makes. Something a little unsure. And then he looks away to the rest of the forest.]

This isn't my home, [It's more complicated than that, but he is choosing to get from Point A to Point B with the least emotional detours.] and I'm doing whatever required to make sure I'm not here permanently.

[They're pretty much complete opposites.]

A few months is manageable. [Stepping a tad closer, he peers into the cauldron to see what the state of all of what they put in happened to be.] A year is bordering on ridiculous.

Did you legitimately intend to donate blood? Do you even have blood to donate?

[ A whole year almost all alone is ridiculous, she wants to say; she spent five hundred of them without anyone else.... So this place is a miracle to be in. And hell, for how much guilt she feels being among others at all, always worrying if she might lose control and hurt them.

Naturally she keeps these thoughts to herself... ]

Of course I intend to donate blood-- we're doing this together, aren't we? [ T E A M W O R K

She reaches for the arrowhead stone had set aside, picking it up delicately. It seem sharp enough to break skin. ]

And... [ With one hand, she begins to draw a thin line across her palm with the tip of the stone. Her body itself isn't human; beyond her skin, it is a concentrated form of energy that has, for whatever reason, taken this form and constructed her to appear as she is. Her form mimics that of a human; she "breathes", her hair can stand on-end, she may even have something that passes for a pulse at her wrist even if she has no literal heart.

She is made to appear as a human, to pass for one, and so there is indeed blood; or a substance that looks like blood that falls from her skin as she clutches her hand over the cauldron. It drips slowly into the contents below. ]

Whatever sort of trouble we're getting into-- [ She continues solemnly, because she knows that everything here takes some sort of risk, even these quests. Maybe they will make a philosopher stone. Maybe they'll make some sort of monster. She doesn't know. ] --You shouldn't' have to be alone.

[He hates teamwork.

But he's survived enough of these quests, and he's given up complaining about them specifically.] The more you open your mouth, the more you sound like Jon, and I hate it. [Surely having weird Chaos Crystal and Lazarus Pit infused blood mixed with... this crazy Blade and Aegis deal Pyra happens to be will end up perfectly fine.

Along with the other insane ingredients they dumped inside.] You can save the do-good optimism. I don't need to be reassured.

[Like a hawk, he watches her with the dagger. A sliver of him doesn't want her handling it or doing this, but he subdues those thoughts in favor of being more interested in seeing what actually comes out of her. Hm. Interesting...

He peers into the cauldron after.]

[ All of the previous ingredients mixed and melted into the cauldron have been brought to a steady simmer within, its thickness made like a sludge by the metal Pyra had brought. But when the last drop of Pyra's blood falls from her palm and into the mix, it begins to boil upward and over the pot.

Taking a cautious step away as the cauldron steams away, she watches as the contents erupts from the cauldron like a volcano, dispersing its thick, black smoke upwards towards the tree tops. The embers forced upward in the small explosion come dangerously close to the tree branches above to her liking, but her worry that a fire will ignite is quickly dismissed within the next second--

The smoke, the embers, the scent, the heat, and even the light that been given off all seems to quickly reverse and retreat back into the cauldron as if sucked back into its origin. The cauldron rumbles loudly upon the fire as if something is attempting to fight its way out, pauses, twitches once, and then stops altogether.

Stepping closer out of curiosity, she looks over the edge of the cauldron to find that it's empty... save for a single, red gem. ] ...Ah-- Is that it?

[Almost as soon as he leans to peer into the cauldron, it starts its boiling over. Damian, too, steps back once or twice, though doesn't seem to be doing it out of fear so much as self-preservation. He extends an arm, maybe as a deterrent in case Pyra wanted to go inspect, maybe as a shield.

His eyes haven't lost their sharp, jade edge, and they don't move from the cauldron. Is it... going to explode? They could have added the wrong ingredients, or the blood could have been the worst thing they offered.

And then it does explode, but not too terribly bad, and Damian throws his other arm up around the bottom half of his face. The smoke spits toward the treetops with the embers. Yeah, okay. He'll fight a cauldron demon, don't think he won't.

Then, suddenly, it all vortexes back in, battles, goes still. Every muscle in him is more rigid than he realizes, not until he's having to relax.] Wai-- [Dammit. He's expecting something to jump out and attach to her face. He's expecting worse.

But she just leans over and-- Carefully, he ventures up and follows suit. It is a red gem.] Possibly. Or a well-crafted fake. [Regardless, he begins bunching the leftover bit of cloth from his own bandage in one hand. He uses that to pick up the red gem when he reaches down into the cauldron to collect it, lets the gem sit there when he holds his palm out so they can look.]

Catch All for May!

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