12th Resurrection - How to Make Friends & Influence People

[sanctus_dei]

[A pale young man sits alone at the park at an outdoor chess board during the afternoon. There's pieces on the board, and a few have been moved around. Mostly, he's reading through an old, old book as he sits there. There's no title on the cover, or if there was, it rubbed off ages ago. There's another book sitting next to him too on the bench - just a run-of-the-mill library book on basic car care. He smokes as he reads, and occasionally puts the book down to make a move on the chessboard. Yep, against himself. He has no one else to play with at the moment. Captain Crankypants here knows that he needs to make allies if he ever wants to overthrow this town, or crack its mysteries... but he also really hates 90% of people, and wouldn't know how to make friends with someone if his life depended on it. And without his spellcasting ability, there wasn't much he could do...

Nonsense! There's plenty Theo's capable of... right?

He also knows that he needs to find a relaxing hobby in this town before he goes completely mad. After all, he was just threatening to beat a girl with a wrench for messing with his car that he doesn't even *care* about. And that he already pretty muched FUBARed it on his own. Obviously mechanics will require more study before he jumps in head-first again...

So this was as far as Theo could make it to being social. He's outside, what more do you want? Well, maybe you want to join in and play some chess. Or maybe you just want to point and laugh at him for being a bitter loner. The choice is yours.]

Comments

[weiss-tank.livejournal.com]

[Ha, take that.]

Hey hey hey! You leave poor Manx alone! She's had enough trouble!

Dude, sounds like a pretty hard core government you got there...who runs it?

[sanctusdei.livejournal.com]

Manx? What?

…I dunno. The president I suppose.

[weiss-tank.livejournal.com]

[Ken coloured a little, realizing he'd said that out loud. Shit. He hoped Theo didn't realize he'd named his pieces]

But how can a human control what a demon does?

[sanctusdei.livejournal.com]

It's a long story. Even the demons don't know where they came from, and need to live amongst humans. But humans instinctually fear them. So, they used to kidnap humans to do their bidding, so they could live amongst people. The government got involved to integrate them into society.

There's a lot more to it than that, but that is the gist of it. They look like humans for the most part, but they have this… smoky ethereal form as well.

[He takes his next move. He's tying to end this game.] Then again, I'm only aware of their uses as spell components.

[weiss-tank.livejournal.com]

Well... I guess that makes sense. I'm just used to hearing about them in stories.

[It honestly wont be hard to end this game soon, if you take out his knight there's a wide open space to the king]

Hey Theo, back home...what are you trying to do anyways?

[sanctusdei.livejournal.com]

[Swipe! There goes your Knight. Smirk smirk smirk.]

What do you mean? Study magic, obviously.

[weiss-tank.livejournal.com]

Yeah but why? Are you gonna try and take over the world with your zombies? [He looks a little distraught at the loss of said knight. He'd named that one after Aya]

[sanctusdei.livejournal.com]

World domination? What am I, a comic book villain? I'm not interested in ruling the world. Maybe just adding a bit of chaos to it every now and then. [Smirk]

[Your King is in check, look out!]

[weiss-tank.livejournal.com]

[He gnaws on a knuckle, damn, how is he going to get Persia out of that one?]

Then what are you trying to do. You can't just be makin' zombies to be your house servants.

[sanctusdei.livejournal.com]

They do make for great servants. Like I said, I can do more with them than just make a shuffling horde.

... I was just trying to learn. But my mentor was a complete waste and the guilds wouldn't let me in. I wouldn't have gotten as far as I did if I didn't steal all my mentor's books and study on my own.

I just want to get good at it. To be the best at it.

[weiss-tank.livejournal.com]

[He paused, he could actually understand that sentiment]

Well... I guess so. But I mean, aren't you already really good at it if you can raise them and make them do what you want?

[sanctusdei.livejournal.com]

Of course I am. I picked up necromancy in almost no time at all. But there's so much more out there to learn. Countless kinds of spells. And I know I'm capable of much, much more.

[Looks down at the board, thinking for a moment, and makes his last move.]

Checkmate.

[weiss-tank.livejournal.com]

DAMN IT! [Ken burries his face in his hands] Sorry Persia...I tried.

Other spells? You mean things like fireballs and stuff like that?

[sanctusdei.livejournal.com]

[Smirksmirksmirk] Better luck next time.


Elemental spells are an option. But I've always had an interest in summoning spells, as well.

[weiss-tank.livejournal.com]

Summoning? Like Dragons and demons and stuff?!

[He...doesn't know whether to look confused, impressed, excited, or frightened out of his mind at the thought of Theo having power like that]

[sanctusdei.livejournal.com]

Exactly like that, yes. A difficult area but definitely rewarding.

[weiss-tank.livejournal.com]

I guess so. You're the type that likes the challenging ones, aren't ya. [Well, he knew that already but still, it had to be said.]

What about healing? Does that magic exist too?

[sanctusdei.livejournal.com]

Of course. It's no fun if it's easy.

Yeah, it does. I have a few books on it. Learning some of the easy ones can be handy so you can at least learn to heal yourself. But higher-powered healing is a very dangerous thing to learn.

[weiss-tank.livejournal.com]

Really? I would have thought that would have been one of the safer things to learn. [Just you wait until he gets all his scars back, then Theo you'll see why he asks this]

[sanctusdei.livejournal.com]

Most certainly not. The amount of energy you need to channel to heal wounds or cure diseases is staggering. And don't think you can cure cancer or anything with it, either. Temporarily maybe, but it always comes back. You've got to be damn good to cast healing spells. I suppose I could try, but I was never really interested in it. The spells are too... boring.

[weiss-tank.livejournal.com]

You just like blowing shit up don't you.

[Still, he's never really thought about the actual practicalities of magic. It just always seemed so fantastical in movies and comic books and they didn't suffer ill effects there]

[sanctusdei.livejournal.com]

Blowing stuff up is fun... but pushing the limits is even better.

[weiss-tank.livejournal.com]

I think I'm going to stick with the conventional means of causing damage thank you very much.

[Have a grin Theo]

Limits are meant to be pushed anyways.

[sanctusdei.livejournal.com]

Anyone can shoot a gun, or throw a punch. Not everyone can cast magic.

[weiss-tank.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but this town can't take away your fists.