[closed] hello darkness my old friend

[kingsroads]

Who: Strange & Syrlya
Where: their trailer
When: evening of Day 52
What: surprise, Strange is kind of cursed.

Strange makes it a point to get back to their trailer before Syrlya after dinner. It helps that he didn't really eat much to begin with. His mind's swimming with potentials of the mirror, aspects of a spell he's working on, and the faint hope that's growing even stronger that maybe, just maybe this Silver Mirror would be able to break the curse he was under.

So, when Syrlya arrives, Strange is sitting at his desk chair, idly tapping a pencil on the edge of the desk while staring off into space slightly. It's only when the door opens that Strange looks over and blinks back to attention.

"Syrlya," Strange says, with a nod. More and more people know of his curse but a part of Strange still feels intensely awkward talking about it on something like a public radio channel. He'll talk around it, of course, but it's a bit too personal and the story's a bit too long for everybody to know. "I believe I owe you an explanation."

His face plainly says that this isn't going to be much of a happy story.

Comments

[kingsroads]

"Well, wood is life and rot is death...maybe it's something that straddles the boundaries? It could turn people into vampires or something like that." This isn't a very good explanation and Strange knows it. Still, in his defense, he's entirely spitballing and just spouting off theories.

"Truth be told, I don't have the slightest idea," he says, as he takes the papers from Syrlya. Strange continues to talk as he scans the story, looking for something in particular. "And I don't know where I'd guess to begin with. After all, I don't think any of us expected the Blue Rose to be a weapon."

[chronosynthesis]

Syrlya shrugs. "Anything can be a focus of magical power. The Blue Rose was created, not a natural phenomenon."

Actually, most prominent focuses he can think of are created. They're really a specialty of magicians than a proponent of naturally occurring magic. He gestures to Strange. "Just the same as mirrors."

[kingsroads]

"True," Strange admits. After all, the main reason why mirrors are magical in his world is because of the actions of John Uskglass, the Raven King. "It's simply that—ah ha!"

It looks like Strange has found what he was looking for. There's a bit of a grin on his face as he reads: "In the rise of the Great Beast’s power, she had turned away the forces of the Huntsman, and thus gained much attention among the beasts of the Wyld. Granted, all this is hypothetical but if the Huntsman is hunting the Third Miracle, then perhaps he wants to find it to stop the Ringmaster and regain control of the Wyld Lands."

At least in Strange's mind, it's a pretty good theory despite the fact that it is 100% baseless speculation. And man, does he look smug with himself for coming up with that baseless speculation theory.

[chronosynthesis]

"Do you believe she still has control while we roam from world to world?" The Wyld Lands were her home, and yet it doesn't seem like they've made any stops there recently. If ever. He can't help but wonder if she's as distant from that now as she is the rest of the Fae.

Still... "But I suspect you are right that the third miracle and the Hunstman are entwined. It seems as though we have found so little of it, compared to the mirror." Was there just less information?

[kingsroads]

"It might be that our hearts led us to what would be easiest to obtain? After all, mirrors aren't mobile." The frown on Strange's face plainly tells Syrlya that he knows his theory is a little terrible. But hey, the method of 'use your heart to search for what you want' is equally terrible. This place really needs a classification system.

"As for your first question, I do believe she still has control. Prince excepted, we haven't dealt with any Wyld Fae as we have the Court fae." But again, Strange is frowning in a way that tells Syrlya he's not so sure about this. All this is theorizing which he absolutely loves, but which he knows won't really give him answers.

[chronosynthesis]

"The Wyld Fae are more independent, to my understanding. And she does not appear to have angered them." He rests his cheek on his hand. "If she has so much control, why can she not call upon allies to help? It sounds as though she had more influence than simply being a friendly figure."

There's definitely a piece to all of this they're missing, but since it doesn't relate directly to the miracles Syrlya isn't thinking too deeply about it. It's just easier to identify the holes when Strange brings up the theory, first.

[kingsroads]

Strange sighs in aggravation as he looks back at the paper. Because true, true. Why haven't they dealt with more Wyld Fae? Why is the Summer Maiden the only fae that seems to actually care about the Ringmaster? There's so many holes here and so many threads that seemingly go nowhere and it's honestly a bit aggravating.

"I wonder if we'll ever know the full story," Strange sighs. He doubts it. But for someone like Strange, not knowing things is downright awful.

[chronosynthesis]

"That depends if you can pry it out of her." Syrlya gestures in the air. "Or be very lucky in this library. Something tells meir it'sa very long story."

Which doesn't mean it doesn't have value, but much of the Scribe's work seems to be in snippets, rather than an organized whole.

[kingsroads]

"And considering that the Ringmaster's secretive at best, I think the library's our best chance." Which again, isn't all that good a chance in the first place.

Strange sighs as he leans back in his chair slightly. "A week or so after I first arrived, some vampires placed a magical sigil on the edges of carnival territory. Obviously this was bad news and obviously this would put us in danger, but the Ringmaster kept it to herself and to her supervisors instead of telling everyone." A fact which, based on Strange's frown, he's not too pleased about. And then, because he has a feeling he knows what the next question will be... "I only know about the sigil because I spied on the meeting. Still, that doesn't exactly inspire confidence in her ability to be open about these things."