video; Seelie locked

[depicted]

[Dorian Gray has been doing a great deal of growing up. When he addresses the locket, his expression is set firmly, and his famous youth is only in his features. This is war. And he does not wish for death. So he is short, to the point, avoiding all of the excesses of his normal speech patterns.]

I've produced protective stones as a product of my research in warding magic. [He holds up one: a simple stone, with runes carved in, small, lightweight, very portable.] I have made as many as I could as quickly as possible. It will guard the bearer from the first strikes set against them by taking the damage in their stead, but it can only bear so much—up to a broken bone, perhaps, or a deep but non-fatal cut. Still, it is one more chance of survival.

If any wish for one, you may come to me in the library of Caer Glaem, or I can deliver it to you anywhere in Seelie territory.

Comments

[monstrous]

Do it for me, I want to see. Please? [and he gives Dorian a sweet and charming smile because he does want something, but he's also being sincere. HE WANTS TO SEE MAGIC, or he wants to see it not work. Either way he wants to see how this all works]

[depicted]

[He couldn't say no to that smile. Dorian answers it back, unable not to, and then he steps aside to start charting out the appropriate runes on the workroom floor. Circles and circles and symbols along the lines, and then three stones set at centre.

At that point, Dorian begins to hum. The piece is Schumann, the Prophet Bird. There is no song more closely associated with both fear and a need to keep safe. Dorian plays as if a piano in the air, his right hand and left following the path of the keys, but he only hums the right hand part. And just as he said, the stones hum the left back at him.

When he is done, the stones remain, the same but changed. But three stones is more than Dorian was really ready to handle. Dorian blinks a few times, drying to brush away the dark veil overcoming his vision. He reaches back towards a chair and tries to yank it over to himself to sit down, dizzy with the effort.]

[monstrous]

[instinctively Toby ruses to help Dorian sit down. When Dorian's sitting, he bends his left leg to the ground, his right hand holding the back of the chair, so he can be eye level with Dorian] Does that happen to you ever time?

[depicted]

No, no, um . . . [He presses a hand to his head, breathes for a moment.] I tried to do it with too many at once. I've only gone one at a time before. I hoped if I did more at once, I could quicken the pace.

[monstrous]

[he's about to lecture, and then stops] Do you need a drink or something? Food? Anything? [Toby can lecture later, when Dorian's looking stronger]

[depicted]

[He attempts to gesture towards the tea tray that he keeps, full of yummy snacks and like 500 kinds of jam.] Tea. And muffins with jam?

[monstrous]

[Without thinking, Toby goes to get Dorian's tea and muffin, and then stops. He looks at Dorian, then everything on the tray.

....

His eyes narrow for the smallest fraction of a second, and then the very sweetest of smiles graces his face, laced with something vicious right under the surface] Of course. Anything else while I'm at it? Tailoring perhaps? Or I can draw you a bath if you like, too? [HE IS NOT YOUR SERVANT, DORIAN >|]

[depicted]

[Dorian's eyes widen. He is completely innocent and lacking in guile.] You're a tailor? I thought you were a vampire.

You're a vampire tailor?

[monstrous]

.....

[no words. Toby just stares at Dorian, then he puts together the tea and the biscuit with jam and pushes it in front of Dorian]

I was being facetious. And you should learn to say please.

[depicted]

[Yay, jam! And the things jam goes on!

He looks up, confused, a split second from shoving jam (and the rest of it) into his mouth but Toby said a thing and it's rude to talk with food in your mouth.]

I don't understand you.

[Like most people tired enough to be nearly drunk, Dorian speaks with a certain finality of his declarations, as if this statement is very important and he needs to deliver it clearly.

Then he shoves his jam into his mouth.]

[monstrous]

I wish I could say the same about you...

[still in sullen brat mode, but not really. He goes to make himself something to eat out of Dorian's tray of goodies]

[depicted]

[Dorian eats and drinks a bit until he feels better. Then he smiles at Toby in an expression of a pure and radiant gratitude, of openhearted affection for one who has been kind to him. It is a smile that last centuries, but has appeared less and less as time made its invisible marks.]

Thank you. You're very kind.

[monstrous]

[Toby is pretty sure that may be the only time he has ever heard Dorian call him that sincerely. He feels sick. He looks down at his hands, undamaged. The only hint of any violence is dried up blood on his hands, traces of the bloody nose Dorian had kindly provided.

Toby brushes crumbs off his hand, his snack only half made and not eaten. He looks down at Dorian. He smiles the kind of smile reserved for strangers who hold the door and old ladies in the market] Yeah, well I better let you have at it. You still've got that order to fill for the troops. Just don't push yourself too much. [Toby grabs his half made snack at the last minute, a show of something he's not sure of, as he had no intention of eating it] Cheers. [and he's just going to peace out]

[depicted]

[And Dorian can only watch Toby go. He doesn't understand the sudden departure; he doesn't understand the look on Toby's face.]

Oh. Farewell, Mr Matthews. Be safe.

[monstrous]

[and Toby wanders the stacks for some time.

And then he appears back where Dorian is again. Sitting down without invitation. Intruding like a boss]

Show me how to do what you did, with the compassionate magic. I want to make those magical rocks, too.

[depicted]

[Oh. Well that was unexpected?? Why do you do what you do, strange vampire man.]

I can lend you my notes to look over. There is no way to know how to do it but to practice.

[monstrous]

Yeah, alright, thanks. Do you know how to apply it to things that aren't music? I can't really do much musically beyond the basics, but I can paint.

[depicted]

[He knows that painting can be magic too, but hearing it from Toby affects him. He looks at him, and he wonders at his portrait. At what might be done.]

Yes.

Magic can be done with painting as well.

[monstrous]

It's just... [he pauses, trying to articulate his thoughts] With music, it seemed pretty cut and dry. You go hmmm hmmm hmmm [and with his hands he mimics Dorian doing the piano movements] and then the rocks do it back to you. I don't get how that would work with painting.

[depicted]

Well . . . Painting is easier, in some ways. Making an image of a thing naturally sets up a sympathy. You might be able to paint a thing, and then decide the rules of the link between the thing and what you have painted.

[monstrous]

Seems easier and quicker the way you do it. You don't even need a piano.

[depicted]

Hold a moment . . . [He grabs one of his notes and hands it over to Toby. At the bottom of the leaf is a note on the name of a book on art magic, and another specifically on painting magic.] Pick that up. It should have something.

[monstrous]

[Toby looks at the note, eyes scrutinizing notes all those notes that just so happen to be on painting magic. He looks up at Dorian, words slow and careful in hopes of avoiding any confusions] It's here? [and he does not mean research books on painting magic.]

[depicted]

[Dorian meets his eyes, and he does not say anything for a long moment. Tobias Matthews will one day be his friend. Dorian cares for him in that. But Dorian has many friends here, and where he has been able to, he has hidden from them all the truth of who he is, of what he is. Four people know what he is; two know that the portrait is present. Dorian didn't tell even one of them those truths by choice.]

It should be on the library shelves somewhere. The librarian can point you to it if you have trouble finding it.

[And his eyes flicker down. He is too frightened to tell the truth of the picture of Dorian Gray.]

[monstrous]

All right. Cheers. [he is going to to go off to find those books, but before he goes] If anything else is here, keep it to yourself. People will use it against you. They always do. [and now off to find books about magical art]