IC Inbox

[skitter]

Comments

[badbutsad]

Hunter looks back at her, and there's something tired in his brown eyes.

"I don't know how many people I got branded. Or maybe even killed for being wild witches. But maybe we can use that, you know? We know how far we're willing to go, and where the line is. Where we wanted to stop before. We can help other people stop before they cross it."

[skitter]

She’s still a while, thinking about that. About which lines she crossed, and which ones she didn’t until she’d forgotten what lines were, and which lines she’d deliberately not acknowledged at all.

“You could use your deal to get rid of the brands.”

[badbutsad]

"It's just an enchantment. It's... a powerful one, admittedly," he can't deny that. "But. There's always a way to break a curse. There has to be. It's not something I have to use a Deal for, especially when the eclipse has passed."

[skitter]

A curse. She looks down at his wrist.

“Is that something your dad’d know?”

[badbutsad]

He looks down as well, twisting his wrist up slightly.

"I don't know. I never asked."

He was so proud of it once. The youngest Scout to earn it, the youngest Golden Guard. He brushes his fingers lightly across it, and bites down on the irrational urge to claw it off.

"Maybe. There might be something in the Demon Realm, though. Some old wild magic legends about it or something."

[skitter]

“It’s probably a little much for laser tattoo removal.” It’s a try at a joke, but she feels it fall flat.

[badbutsad]

"I guess it's not really a tattoo, so." He frowns slightly, and looks at Taylor. "What's a laser?"

[skitter]

"Really concentrated light, that you can use to burn or cut in very specific ways. I think to take off tattoos, they burn very shallow layers of skin until the tattoo gets destroyed." She shifts her legs a little, glancing down at her calf, but doesn't say anything about the tattoo she had on Earth.

"I think they use glass or crystal lenses to concentrate the light."

[badbutsad]

"Oh. So like a beam of raw magic." They weren't common, that lack of control was dangerous and usually reserved for either very young or very incompetent witches. "It's weird that you guys just- make them for fun."

[skitter]

She looks sideways at him, with a smile. "We make toys for our pets out of them. I know we have a laser pointer in the kennel, if you want to see one."

[badbutsad]

Hunter's ears flick as his eyes widen a little in alarm.

"Wouldn't that be dangerous for the animals there?"

[skitter]

She anticipates the question, and is already shaking her head. "This one's weak. Too weak to burn, unless you aim it into your eyes. But it makes a sharp dot of bright light. Cats love chasing it around."

[badbutsad]

"Huh." He gives a gentle acoff as he stands, before he offers her a hand to stand as well. "It feels like every time humans make a weapon, you learn how to make toys out of them instead."

[skitter]

"Sometimes it's the other way around," she counters mildly, accepting the help up with just a bit of wobble. Once she's up though, she's plenty steady. "The difference is usually just a matter of scale anyway."

[badbutsad]

"I suppose." He can't really talk, as he leads the way inside. "Like, abominations are pretty stupid. But if you get a bunch of upgraded ones together, suddenly it's pretty intense."

Taylor's file is sitting on the side table, looking thick and intimidating, and Hunter's ears twitch down a fraction when he sees it. And he'll pause to look back at her.

"You're sure you're okay with me reading it?"

[skitter]

"Yeah." And she is, she's relieved to find. She was more nervous when it was Rags. "I'm okay if you don't want to, too. It's- I'd be willing to tell you anything that might be in there, anyway," she adds, dropping herself into the beanbag chair.

"Even if we weren't paired."