[profoundly backdated]

[10_20_15_5_50]

[private to Rathan]

Hello.

[That Sam isn't opening with her usual 'hey' isn't insignificant; given that she's not yet met this Guardian---she knows he's a recommended resource for magical information, and a dragon, and that's all---to be respectful is only appropriate.]

I'm sorry to bother you, but if you've the time to, I'd like to meet up to talk. I've got a couple of questions, and Irja suggested I take them to you.

[private to Wing]

Hey, man. Suppose you'd be free sometime this evening? Got a conversation I want to have with you, and I'd rather have it in person, but don't worry, it's not bad news or anything.

Comments

[do_not_meddle]

Mnnn, perhaps. But why use magic when a comm drone is so easily available?

[Not that he'd normally NOT choose magic over technology as a matter of course, but he's interested in what her take is.]

[10_20_15_5_50]

Here? I'll be honest---there's no standing reason to use the ritual over a drone, when the drones are easier and don't cost anything, but it's one way to get information to someone who's not taking calls in case of an emergency. To an extent, it also indicates if someone is alive and on-planet. Probably small potatoes stacked against the alternatives at your disposal [DRAGONS] but if you're interested anyway... If you aren't, I have another ritual to put up which is just weird.

[do_not_meddle]

[The tip of the dragon's tail thumps lazily against the ground a few times, much like a cat's, as he considers.]

There are some potential uses to it, I can see. What is this other ritual? I'll make my choice then.

[10_20_15_5_50]

'Mechanical Ipecac.' [A little grin creeps across Sam's face as she says it, and she shrugs.] Involves treating a handful of pocket change so that a machine---specifically, vending---jettisons whatever's in it. Since vending machines haven't been around too terribly long in the history I am acquainted with, most everyone I know who knows of the preparation really wonders about its origin.

[do_not_meddle]

Hmm…

[Wisps of smoke curled from massive nostrils. The ancient red really had no use for either ritual, for various reasons. Still, he'd have accepted the first, to be fair, but she'd offered, and the second one intrigued him for the sheer . . . silly novelty of it.]

That one. Teach me "Mechanical Ipecac," and I will help you design a magical system for your needs.

[This should prove entertaining, if nothing else.]

[10_20_15_5_50]

[There's a lot to be said for the sheer silly novelty of Mechanical Ipecac, as suggested by the little laugh which escapes Sam as she nods acknowledgement---it's the sort of laugh that says 'so it's come to this, god help me,' but she braces herself with the next breath: back to business.]

Okay. Okay, great. I just want you to know, though, before I begin, that no matter how absurd the set-up sounds, it's worked when I've tried it---I'm not just messing with you. I have more sense in my skull than that.

[do_not_meddle]

[Rathan quirked a brow at that, a grin tugging at reptilian lips.]

You have my attention, little spellcaster.

[10_20_15_5_50]

Okay. [More serious, but she's still smiling, because this whole situation is sort of funny---in a really weird way---as is the ritual itself.] Thank you.

First thing, you gotta get something from a vending machine. It can be any kind of vending machine, and any sort of 'something,' so long as the thing can be burnt at least in part. Probably not a problem for you.

Whatever you've got that's going to get burnt has to be set on fire in a plugged bathroom sink, and be allowed to burn out instead of being put out. Once it's burned out, somebody's got to throw up on it, without getting any sick outside the sink. [Did she just manage to say that straight-faced? She did. This stuff may sound silly, but hell---it still gets results. She's seen it.] The original instructions said a drop of blood has to be added, also, but it works just as well without.

The mess in the sink is supposed to be stirred for three minutes, while the person stirring it says the names of diseases. After the three minutes are up, in go eight American pennies and thirteen Canadian quarters. I've been kind of wanting to test if this works with coins from other countries, but...

[It'd be a bit of a hassle.]

Anyways, once the coins are in the mess gets stirred three more times, counterclockwise. At this point, the sink can be unplugged and the coins can be rinsed clean---or at least as clean as they're going to get---with past-due gingerale. Once the pop dries and there's a handful of sticky change left, the coins are ready and will make whatever machine they're fed into expel whatever is in it.

[do_not_meddle]

[Rathan's brow quirks higher, but he listens in silence. The dragon has traveled enough to know that rituals can be strange . . . though even he has to admit that this is probably one of the weirder ones, especially if it actually does work (as opposed to being a haze inflicted on new guild or coven members, which he's seen or heard of some REALLY bizarre and sometimes absurdly demanding "rituals"). At the end, he just nods.]

Is the first stirring clockwise, then? Does the three minutes have to be taken with all different disease names, or can there be repetitions, and are they restricted to human-susceptible diseases? Lastly, must all the coins be used at once, or does this ritual then yield twenty-one uses, and are any single coins reusable without another ritual if the one using them can retrieve them from the machine?

[It might surprise Sam that he's taking it seriously, but hey - for one, again, for all he knows, it /is/ a serious, real ritual, and for two, not like he /needs/ it to return with what the human has requested.]